Family Affair
by Mon937
Summary: My life used to be, well normal isn't the word I'd choose, but it was good enough. It was the good life until June 24th. Then things went left. It's kinda pointless and boring to rant about it, so let me show you." -Kazumi Montage Chapters may be short.
1. Zero Chapter and Chapter 1

Zero Chapter: Hello!

Hiya, readers! This is Mon937 (obviously) here introducing you to my first ever fanfic. I honestly don't remember how I got the idea for it originally, but I've been working on it for a while. Eventually it just started writing itself.

So a little 'bout me... well, I'm a black 16-year old male. Pretty standard anime/manga maniac. Well, except for the fact that I actually play sports pretty often. I guess that's a little unusual.

Anyways, I'm not one for much romance so there's not much of it in this fanfic. That and I don't think I'm good enough to actually do the whole romance thing right without the majority of you puking out of pure revulsion. Well, I think that's it... I'm not good at this so I don't know what else to say. This is only here because a friend suggested I do so.

Read and review if you want so I know just what the hell I'm doing wrong. Otherwise I'll end up doing it in any other fic I write and that probably wouldn't be good.

Well, here's Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Our Life Before

My life used to be, well normal isn't the word I'd choose, but it was good enough. I fought with my siblings, I trained to get stronger than Shea, we fought in underground arenas for extra money (We rarely hit the same place twice within two months since everyone bet against us and we got good money because of it). It was the good life until June 24th. Then things went left. It's kinda pointless and boring to rant about it, so let me show you.

"Hey, Tage! Pick up the pace!" Shea yelled. We were running for the exercise and, as usual, I was falling behind. I knew it would be a matter of time before everyone else tired out and I overtook them, but that time hadn't come yet. We were all sweating in the mid-December heat and the sun glared off the sweat, making us glisten.

"How about you stop making me waste my breath!" I yelled back. If forced to talk continually, I would never pass them. Well, pass Darius and Shea anyway. Trel was already fallin' out, so I sped up a little and ran past him.

"How come... you always DO THAT?" he panted.

"'Cuz it's too easy!" With that, I felt his reiatsu rise and bit a figured what would come next. "Do ya really want to? You'll remember I'm better at shunpo." I said. Afterwards, the reiatsu came back down and Trel kept running normally.

"Hey! Let's turn this into a shunpo race! I wanna get this over with." Darius called.

"You're on!" We all called back and released enough reiatsu to shunpo. I was the most efficient at this: Shea would always release way too much reiatsu and create craters as she ran in which she would always lose balance 'cause of the cracks. Trel would release too little and barely be above normal speed. Darius was pretty good actually, fluxing between a little too much and a little too little, causing him to go pretty damn fast. But I was perfect. And I always held back a lot so I wouldn't get jumped at home (Darius and Trel didn't scare me, but Shea did). 30 seconds later and we were standing at home.

Home wasn't big, just a two story house where the living room takes up most of the 1st floor and there's a little kitchen for the space it doesn't take up. On the second floor is all 4 of our rooms, but they're pretty much shoved onto the side next to the stairs. What the builders were thinkin', I'll never know.

"We got any fights today?" Shea asked, maybe a little too eagerly, when we settled into the couches in the living room. Shea was an absolute fight-a-holic. He smiles wide every time we step into a ring or an opponent underground finds us topside and wants revenge.

"Nope," Darius sis, "That's next week." We were just talking about completely useless stuff and how to get extra money (I remember Shea punching Trel through a wall when he jokingly suggested one job. "DON'T EVEN JOKE LIKE THAT!!!" she screamed, an impossible red blooming across her face.) when my life as I knew it ended. And it all started with that oppressive reiatsu.


	2. Humanoid Hollow

Chapter 2: Humanoid Hollow

Mon: OK, before I get started, I know what's introduced later is an Arrancar, but Montage doesn't. As far as he knows, it's a humanoid Hollow

Don't get me wrong, we've fought many Hollows before. Most of them only required 2 seconds with one of us, who'd be embarrassed if they got scratched. Other times, it took 20 minutes with all four of us and in the end we'd be on Death's Door. In those cases, we'd drag ourselves to the Kurosaki clinic. Hell, we were their best customers! We had no sharp weapons for the most part, didn't need 'em. Shea would smash in their masks, Darius would be all over them, beating them senseless with a 12" pole he always carried (it was a memento of mom), I would pound away at the mask in a single spot (Sometimes it took 1 shot, sometime 20, but never more than 20), and Trel would sneak behind the Hollow with a sharp object and ride it down the Hollow's face. In any case, this Hollow was different. We could barely move 'cause of the pressure it put on us. Yet there was something familiar about it. I was snapped from my thoughts when I spotted it, but it was weird. The Hollow looked like a human, a busty, short purple haired, maniacal faced human wearing a white and black kimono and hakami with no footwear. It also had tiny fragments of white on top of it's eye.

"What the fuck!" Darius grumbled as he saw the humanoid Hollow. "What is that?" The Hollow took 2 steps toward us and disappeared. The next thing I knew, there was a sharp pain and I flew into a wall, the same one Trel went through earlier. When I got back up, there was a chain on my chest that connected to my body. Wait a second, BODY!?

"Oh, great. They're just pluses. Well, at least they'll make a good meal." the female Hollow said in a honey sweet voice.

"Pluses? What's a plus?" Shea asked.

"The dead have no need for that knowledge." it stops, and sorta hits itself in the head. "Actually, the dead have PERFECT need for it, but I've always wanted to say that line, so..." She stops abruptly again. "Wait, you're all pluses. With the chain still connected. We're in need of more Hollows and it's been a while since I've seen someone tortured..." she thought aloud. Then, in the blink of an eye, Dare, Shea, and Trel's bodies crumpled and they fly out on chains. We went to rush the Hollow, but it merely sidestepped us. And cut our chains. Immediately our chains start eating themselves and we double over in pain.

"Enjoy your last days as pluses, kiddies." The woman said as she disappears.

I can't remember the remainder of the day. If I moved, I can't tell ya. If I talked with the family, I don't know. All I do know is I was in a whole 'nother universe, and it was made of nothing but pain. I remember thinking if this was what Hell was like and made a mental note to cut down on the Pride sin if I survived this. I figured that the others were in this kind of pain too, but I didn't want to see it. I withdrew into my own black little world.

_**"Montage!"**_ a voice says roughly.


	3. Shinigami

Chapter 3: Shinigami

_**"Montage!"**_ a voice said roughly.

"Who..? What's goin' on!?" I asked as the darkness lifted. Right in front of me was my uncle's house. We visited every weekend before aunty's divorce lead him to hard drinkin'. Dysfunctional family, huh? I think the reason was something stupid like too many different tastes in music, but that could've been one of those "Idiotic Child Believable" stories. Back to the house, it was a green that matched the grass and had a white border around the windows. It was small-looking, but the inside had a huge living room, 2 rooms-- kids' room and Unc's room--, a bathroom, and a kitchen/dining room. There was a farm behind me, I knew from memory, with a road separating the two. At the end of the road, I remember the sand mounts we used to play in all the time while we were here.

"Where...? Better question, why am I back here?" I though aloud.

"This is how your soul looks like." a woman said in a loud, rough voice. I looked up to see her in a white, sword tattered coat and black jean with red and black Converses on. Her stare was so cold I was frozen to the spot, but her face seemed to be made for that type of stare. A firm, laughless mouth, dull black eyes with one covered by her pale blue hair that, when all added together, came out beautifully.

"Who are you?" I asked in a voice I hoped was confident.

"Mana. Laugh, and you won't live past the second chuckle." she said in a voice of steel.

"Well, it IS a weird name."

"Wait! You could actually hear my name!?"

"As clear as day. What about it?"

"Well, usually shinigami can't hear their zanpankuto's name until they've had some training or any sorta experience."

"Shinigami? Is that what Toshiro is?" I asked. My family and I met Hitsugaya Toshiro during one of our many clinic rushes after a successful underground fight 2 years ago. For some reason, when Kurosaki Ichigo called him Toshiro, he insisted on being called Hitsugaya-taicho. I dunno why. In any case, shortly after we arrived his cell rang and he excused himself. Coincidentally, we sensed a Hollow nearby. Since I was the only one who could more with any sort of speed at the moment, they sent me to get rid of it (I made a mental note to re-K.O. Cage Breaker for battering their legs with chains). I arrived and drop kicked it's face. It fell back and swiped for me, but the arm that swung was cut off. The Hollow released one of it's ear piercing shrieks before I ax-kicked the mask, smashing it.

"Oy! Who are you?" The guy behind me asks. I turned around and, not surprisingly, saw Toshiro.

"Yo, Toshiro" I waved, silently chucking as his temples throbbed

"It's... anyway, who are you?" he repeated

"Kazumi Montage, age 10." I answered on impulse. Then I added, "Isn't it common courtesy to give your own name before asking others theirs?"

"You know my name already! How anyway?"

"I was at the Kurosaki clinic just a few minutes ago!" I yelled. I really hate 3 things: (A) being underestimated, (B) Whatever killed Mom, and (C) people who don't notice things in their surroundings.

"What!? I left before you an shunpo'd the whole way!"

"Well you're just slow."

"You would dare call a captain of the Gotei 13 slow!?" he asked threateningly. I noticed that the temperature had dropped significantly ever since his temples went into overdrive.

"Gotei 13, huh? Are all captains this slow?" I countered. Another thing I hate, is being threatened. It just doesn't sit well with me.

"Why you...!"

"OK, that's enough, boys." a girl called from behind me. I turned around and saw one of the girls from the clinic. Kari or Kim or something. I noticed the temperature climbed back to normal, even though Toshiro's temples were still throbbing.

"Karin? What're you doing here?" Toshiro asked. Ah! That was her name! Where the hell did I get Kim from!?

"Dad sent me to fetch Montage over there. His brothers and sister are patched up, but he needs help makin' 'em stay.

I'm gonna end the flashback there since it no longer bears any relevance to right now. Maybe I'll tell ya the rest later.

"Yes, that's what Hitsugaya Toshiro is." Mana answered.

"So does that mean I get a sword?" I asked

"They're CALLED zanpakuto." she practically yelled at me. "And yea, you'll get yours." she smiled cruelly and her eyes radiated joy.

"I don't like that look in your eye. What're ya gonna do!?"

"This." Then my entire world turned upside down. Or so it felt. Somehow, a giant tsunami hit me full in the face before I noticed it. "Ya got 'til ya run outta breath to find it."

I saw nothing. Just water as far as I could see, and I needed air badly. I gathered some reiatsu into my right foot and roundhoused the water, dividing it for a sweet, glorious second. I filled my lungs and got to searching. Soon after, I still found nothing and needed air again, so I roundhoused again. This time I bothered to look at the area I split. Lo and behold, a sword was northeast of me, but the water closed in before I could take a good look. I swam in the general area of the zanpakuto, but saw nothing. Then I got an idea. I charged my entire right leg with reiatsu and did an ax-kick so hard I did a 360, then did a 360 roundhouse. My zanpakuto was sitting not even 2 inches to my left, so I grabbed it and the water immediately evaporated.

"That was a... unique way of dealing with that." Mana said once I caught my breath.

"There's another way of doing that?" I growled.

"Yea, create an orb of reiatsu with yourself in the center. You would've had infinite air and been able to see though the water."

"Son of a whore!" I screamed and silently cursed myself for not thinking of it. "At least it got the job done." I defended, more to myself than Mana."

"Pft. Whatever. In any case, don't die . It'll be embarrassing for me to have finally gotten to fight then my partner dies 1st thing." she said, heading turned to the side, arms crossed.

"Go into battle?"

"Yea, I'm the zanpakuto you're holdin'."

"Ya got the personality for it." I muttered

"Shut up and go!"

"Fine, fine, damn!" Next thing I knew, I was outside with my zanpakuto. It was like a katana, only slightly longer with a black edging and the hilt had a shrieking face grafted into it. Also my chain was gone and my clothes were replaced with a black kimono and hakami with grass (I guess) flip-flops. I looked around and saw my brothers and Shea had stopped rollin' around and their barely existant chains had stopped eatin' themselves. "How'd you guys get the chains ta stop?" I asked

"We've got to keep feeding it reiatsu." Darius answered. "Not a large amount, but still." he added when he caught the look on my face.

"What's with the threads?" Trel asked.

"I became..." I started before the oppressive reiatsu was back again


	4. Fight

Chapter 4: Fight

"A shinigami." the female humanoid Hollow finished in a ice-cold voice, giving me the death stare. For some reason, the reiatsu wasn't as oppressive as it used to be and the stare that could've killed little kids didn't faze me...much.

"I could've just eaten you all a few days ago, but nooo, I had to let you bear the chains. Dammit!" she cursed herself. "Oh well, gotta look at the bright side,"she said, voice returning to honey, "At least you're a whole lot tastier now!" she claimed as she flew at me. I drew Mana and slashed the air in front of me. I didn't expect to hit anything and my expectations were met. What DID happen was the Hollow backed off.

"You draw pretty quick, kid."

"I shunpo even quicker." I said as I ran behind her. I may have surprised her, so I managed to get my zanpakuto into the skin of her shoulder a little before she grabbed it and threw it (And me) away from her. The cut drew a little blood and I knew she was mad about it . While I was reorienting, she popped up right in front of me, the maniacal glare on fire, and swung at me. It was a simple jab, so I ducked it and swept her feet. When she lost it's footing, I ax-kicked her full in the face with more than a little reiatsu. I felt a hurricane brewing, so I got out of a 3 foot radius of the Hollow. As she rose I could feel the hate radiating off her. I could also hear my siblings gasp at the beat down they obviously envisioned for me. In any case, I could tell this wasn't gonna end well.

"Hey, kid, I am Arrancar 210, Asesino Muerto. Remember it in all your next lives!" she growled in the arctic voice of hers as she rose, but because of Mana's it didn't affect me that much. She pulled out her nodachi and ran at me. . I managed to meet my zanpakuto with it, but I started to get pushed back.

_**"Idiot! Start throwin' some reiatsu behind me to I'm gonna snap in two!"**_ Mana commanded in my head. Rather than argue, I acquiesce and put some reiatsu into Mana. Instantly I stopped being pushed back. I slashed and it sent Asesino flying from me.

"_**Not so much! You'll get tired way too fast!"**_

"I feel just fine with where it's at." I replied.

"_**Pft, fine. Have it your way."**_ Asesino recovered and flew at me again, but it was a straight stab, easy to dodge. So I jumped to the left and slashed from her ribs to the thigh. She shrieked and fell to the ground, twitching a little. By this point my head was filled, so I started taunting.

"C'mon! Is that it?" I said, Mana on my shoulder, me grinning like a madman.

"Bastard! Don't you dare underestimate me!" she screamed as she rose to her knees, still bleeding profusely. "Anquila, Difunto Existencia." There was a bright light and then I felt myself getting impaled on something. I coughed up blood but didn't bleed much due to the wide, straight thing that impaled me still being in there. When the flash died down, Asesino Muerto was no longer humanoid. She had about eight legs, her normal body sittin' on top of them, but with 5 spears growing out of her back—one of which I was impaled on– and her face was half covered by a white mask with 4 blue streaks starting from the tip of the skull and ending at the eye socket and a red rectangle starting at the nose line, half covered by her now wild waist length hair . I swear I could still see the maniacal grin underneath all that.

"No, you don't get to die yet." the Hollow claimed, " Watch your siblings as they die, THEN it's your turn!"

"No!" I groaned. I cut off the spear holding me in mid-air, but another just as quickly filled it's place and another stabbed my sword arm– the right one if you hadn't figured it out. "AAAAAAAARRRGH!" I cried out, dropping Mana in the process. I could no longer gather the strength to fight. During that time, Darius had grabbed his pole, Trel got a Desert Warrior .45 caliber handgun, and Shea still had nothing other other than some black, fingerless gloves. They are charged at her with blood lust filling their eyes . Shea jumped into the air and shunpo'd , overcoming her crater issue, and slammed her fist into Asesino's face. She reeled a bit and ripped the spear outta my arm. Needless to say, it hurt like hell and I screamed my lungs out. Trel shot the spear I was hanging off of and I dropped to the floor, grabbing Mana when I landed. Immediately my bleeding ceased and I brought myself to a wobbly stand.

_**"STOP!" **_Mana commanded. _**"This isn't gonna do anything other than get your dumb ass killed!"**_

__"Yeah? Well at least I can go into the next life sayin' I died with my family." I panted. I wasted no time chargin' in, shunpo useless due to the gaping hole in my gut, using my left arm seeing as my right was totaled. I slashed across Asesino's chest, a shiny red half-X appearing where I slashed. She screamed apparently not expecting it, and threw her remaining spears at me in rapid fire. I had to block quickly to keep from dying, but it was impossible in my state to completely block them all. Seeing my struggle even as he fights off her legs, Darius grabbed one spears and a rope, flipped around the other spears tying them as he went, and roped them around the support beam of the house. This stopped the spears' movement long enough for Shea to punch right through them. The Spider Hollow released one of those screams unique to Hollows and brought the stubs of the former spears to stare at, eyes wide with fear. The battle had turned in our favor. Then it happened.


	5. Lost

Chapter 5: Lost

The chains on the chests of my siblings started up once again.

"Dammit! Forgot about it!" Shea claimed, quickly channeling reiatsu into the chain. It stopped maybe 3 inches before the base. She was the most fortunate as Dare only had 2 inches and Trel's was barely visible. This distraction was all Asesino needed. She regrew all five of her spears and rammed one into each of us. As we hung there, trying to get off, 4 swords we had stashed in the middle of the second floor fell from the crumbled second story. Asesino saw them and a poisonous grin split her face, her fear of just a moment ago replaced by her serial killer eyes. Shes used a leg in pin me to the ground and another each to pick up each of the swords. One was an Okatana (2-handed sword about 3'5"), the second was a kodachi (short sword less than 2'), third was a tsurugi (double-edged broadsword about 2'7") and the last was a regular katana. Then a sight that will be burnt into my memory as long as I continue to see occurred. Asesino took the Okatana, unsheathed it, and started tearing Shea's soul apart, sending blood– or ectoblood, whatever souls bleed– splattering everywhere. Shea looked to be in unimaginable pain, but any screams she had she smothered in her throat when she saw the look of glee on Asesino's face. Wherever Asesino ripped, she would place in the Okatana starting from the bottom and working up. Right before it was torn off, Shea used her face to spit in Asesino's. Afterwards, Asesino vigorously ripped the face off. Now there was nothing left of Shea. I couldn't even scream or cry out because of the gruesomeness of it all and the fear I felt crawling up my body. Next was Trel, in the same meticulous process using the kodachi, but he didn't scream. No matter how much it looked like he wanted to.

"Oh come on! Those soul shattering screams are what I live for! At least give me one." she complained. But her request was denied by Darius as his soul was transformed into the tsurugi. Matter of fact, he denied it so much he didn't even show pain on his face. Losing her cool, she tore my right arm off first and I had to grit my teeth to bare it, but I didn't scream. I had gone in to a daze while Shea was being torn apart, but now Mana snapped me out of it.

_**"I shoulda known this fight was outta your league, but it'd been so long since I fought. Forgive me."**_ My reiatsu flared up. Remember those four things I hate? By saying that, my half-dead brain took it as she was underestimating me, even though it was completely true. And the rational part of my mind knew it. Fortunately, that was the dead part of my mind. I clutched Mana and cut of the leg pinning me and spun around, cutting several more. I squirmed from beneath the leg and brought myself to a shaky stand.

"I can see you've still got some fight left in you. Fine by me!" Asesino claimed, dropping the swords and running at me. I grit my teeth again and shunpo'd to my siblings. Seeing as I only had one arm, I couldn't pick them all up properly, so I scooped them into my remaining arm.

_**"Geez! Your right arm is tore up!" **_Shea's voice laughed.

"What the fuck!?" I shouted, giving my positions away to Asesino.

_**"Never mind! Just let me help you with your arm." **_Darius commanded. _**"Throw a little reiatsu into me."**_ I followed his instructions without question. As soon as I did noes and sickeningly pink muscles flew outta my stump of an arm, grossing me out for a second. Fortunately for my stomach, which also had muscles enclose around it, it was immediately grafted over with skin.

"What the fuck!?" Asesino and me yelled at the same time.

_**"Stop gaping and FIGHT!" **_Shea yelled.

_**"Remember how Toshiro's sword changed that one time?" **_Trel asked. I faintly remembered Toshiro changing his sword to fight a clawed Arrancar about 3 years before I knew him.

"Got it." I said as I threw Shea into my new right arm.

"Break them down, Shea!" The Okatana (Shea) changed into her favorite black, fingerless gloves. You know, the ones she was wearing before becoming a zanpakuto.

"Run through them, Darius!" Darius (The tsurugi) changed into a dual bladed wooden pole about two feet long with a hilt, reminding me of a bokken.

"Hide me well, Trel!" Trel simply went back into his sheath and hung off my side.

"VERY useful, Trel." I mocked

_**"Shut up and wait for the effect!"**_ he shouted back. Asesino, deciding that she'd given me way too much time, charged at me. I used shunpo, but went WAY faster using a lesser percentage of my actual speed. At 10%, I was moving at my usual 90%! Once I had disappeared, she seemed to have trouble locking on to my reiatsu._**"See? I made your reiatsu undetectable as long as I'm sheathed."**_ OK, I had to admit, THAT was cool. I used Darius to cut a X into her back using both edges and shunpo'd above her. As she swiped behind her, I dropped on her head, punching with Shea as I landed, Shea crunched the top of Asesino's skull, causing the Arrancar to crumple wordlessly and disburse into thousands of tiny blue particles. I just sat there absorbing what had just happened. I, scratch that, my family had just beaten the hardest Hollow, I mean Arrancar, we'd ever faced. I turned my siblings back to normal forms and sheathed them.

_**"Hey! Aren't ya forgettin' somthin'?"**_ Mana asked. A dull throb in my right arm told me what. I crossed the room and picked up the katana containing a piece of my soul. As soon as it reached eye-level, it disbursed and gathered around my arm.

_**"That blade will fill with your soul and become an excellent zanpakuto."**_

"OK, but what about our bodies?" I asked. They were still intact and thrown all over the room.

_**"Well, we ain't using 'em anymore." **_ Shea said.

_**"Scientists see this, they'll never figure out how 4 perfectly healthy kids went into a coma. They'll perform all sorts of experiments on our bodies." **_Darius added.

_**"Shred them." **_Trel suggested

_**"Keep your's intact." **_ Mana commanded, _**"Officials'll think distress over the murder of your family caused it and if you ever need it, it's there." **_She's really bossy! But she also makes a lotta sense. As commanded, I cut up my siblings' bodies using their corresponding zanpakuto, leaving mine alone.

" OK. Now what?" I asked.

"Holy...! What the fuck happened here!?" a familiar voice demanded. I turned to find none other than Hitsugaya Toshiro standing in the doorway.

"Yo, Toshiro." I waved, once again smirking as his temples throbbed. "What took ya?"

"To be honest, I do not know, but answer the question, uhhh... Mon-tage (T-age) was it?"

"Montage! You know, like the picture montage!?" I yelled, my own temples throbbing. Add two more things to the Things I Hate list: Asesino Muerto and people mispronouncing my name. "In any case, got an hour or two?"


	6. Soul Society

Chapter 6: Soul Society

I retold the last 2 or 3 days of my life, carefully leaving out the part were my arm is sawed off and turned into a zanpakuto, with detail so vivid that Toshiro actually cringed during several parts of the tale. In the end, I could see the pity and guilt swimming in his eyes, me hating the former and apathetic towards the latter.

"So what DID take you guys so long? According to you the Soul Society's supposed to respond to this sorta thing practically immediately." I asked to vent my anger at being pitied.

"A ryoka broke in about 3 days ago and destroyed the equipment held in the Research and Development Department." Toshiro began. "Kurotsuchi-taicho, the head of the R & D Department and captain of the 12th division, threw a huge fit and refused to do anything for the rest of the day. It took the 1st, 6th, and 11th division taichos to 'convince' him to start the repairs even though the taicho of the 4th division, Unohana-taicho made sure he continued. It was just 2 minutes before your reiatsu dropped that they picked up signs of conflict between a shinigami and Arrancar and sent someone to investigate since no one could identify the shinigami in question."

"Any ideas on who the ryoka was?"

"Our only lead is he looked similar to the former 3rd seat of Division 2, as..." he froze after that. My reiatsu had spiked again at the mention of that hated seat. That was the seat of my bastard father.

"So Dad is tryin' ta get me killed, huh?" I said through gritted teeth.

"DAD!? What do you know...? You know what, let's get this straightened out at the Soul Society. You don't look like you will keep standing up for too much longer." he said as whipped out his cell phone. "Kurotsuchi-taicho? I need a gate there now!...It's important!...We've got a new lead on the ryoka." Not even 2 seconds after he said those words, a gate formed practically 2 inches from my right. If I had the energy, I would've jumped at the suddenness of it.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Toshiro prodded. He then all but shoved me through the gate and actually kicked me out the other side. I didn't get two seconds on the floor to relax when someone scooped me up by the collar with all the sensitivity of an ox.

"Where is the ryoka!?" a guy with a white and black face and a weird-lookin' hat demanded while his overly long fingernail slowly sliced into my throat.

"Drop 'em, Mayuri." a gruff voice commanded. In the course of a second, I found myself on the floor again. My savior was a spiky haired, tall as hell guy with an eye patch and bells on his hair.

"He looks as if he's lost a lot of blood. Would you kindly bring him to the division, Isane?" a kindly woman with a braid so long it was braided in front of her throat asked.

"Of course, Unohana-taicho!" a white-haired woman, Isane I guess, replied. THIS was the Unohana that scared Mayuri into servitude?

I remember letting go of that last strand of consciousness after thinking that I drifted in and out of the world for a while after that. I caught brief snips of conversations regarding me while I was in, though I couldn't actually turn those conversations into a language I could understand. I finally landed firmly on Earth, or the Soul Society, wherever the hell I am, when I felt a tug. When I opened my eyes, I saw Toshiro tuggin' at Darius.

"What the hell do ya think you're doin'!?" I demanded, pulling back.

"Trying...to...find...the...shinigami...this...belongs to!" he said as he yanked. "But you've had a death grip on all four of these zanpakuto since arriving!" he said as he gave up. "Even Zaraki-taicho couldn't get them away."

"They're all mine!" I yelled. I slid outta bed and stood up, noticing my clothes were black again instead of the crimson red they were dyed in.

"Impossible! A shinigami only has one... Oh, that's right." he said looking at the ground as he remembered my story. "Well, I will go tell Unohana-taicho you are awake." he proceeded to run out of the room. Having nothing better to do, I began to stretch my legs. They felt like it'd been an eternity since I used them last. After that, I moved on to my arms and was right in the middle of neck stretches when Unohana-taicho walked in.

"Good morning. I am Unohana Retsu, taicho of the 4th division." she said as she bowed.

I returned the bow and said, "I am Kazumi Montage. Thanks for the patch up."

"Oh no, you were completely healed by the time you arrived here. You were only asleep so long due to blood loss and a long period without sleep." I guess three days is a long time to go without sleep.

"Wow, nice job, Darius! Wait a second, how long was I out?"

"About 5 days."

I jump back and scream "Damn!!" I'd never heard of anyone sleeping that long!

"This Darius character, was he the one who healed you?"

_**"I don't heal, if you were wondering, Montage."**_ Darius said._** "I only sped up the natural process of your body piecing itself back together from several years to approximately 5 seconds."**_

__"No, he says didn't actually heal me. He says he just sped up the process from years to seconds."

"Enough pleasantries, which division are you in?" an old man who'd been sitting in the corner the entire time demanded

"None. I've been even set foot in this place before, much less get in whatever system you've set up."

"Then who are the three shinigami whose zanpakuto you carry?"

"Didn't Toshiro tell you about that already?"

"You will address him as Hitsugaya-taicho." He said sternly. Whatever, I first knew him as Toshiro and he's gonna stay Toshiro. "And yes, he did include that in his report. I just don't believe it, each shinigami has only one zanpakuto."

"So if I changed them all, would you believe me?"

"If you released them all into shikai, I would have to."

"OK, Mana, how do I release you?" I asked her in my head.

_**"I'll just tell you what I enjoy doing."**_

"Break them down, Shea!" Shea once again turned into her favorite pair of black, fingerless gloves.

"Run through them Darius!" Darius became like a dual-edged bokken

"Hide me well, Trel!" Trel sheathed himself.

"Make them writhe in pain, Mana!" I could predict what everyone else could turn into, but Mana's form took me by surprise. Her blade edge had a red lining on it, just ready for blood it seemed, while the rest of the blade was an eerie blue with the insignia of a screaming person moving from the hilt to the center of the blade, completely black. Spikes grew around my sword hand (my right one) without actually touching it and about a foot of chain grew out of the bottom of the hilt. I took a test swing and found that the scream insignia started a high-pitched wail so high that the old man and Unohana-taicho had to cover their ears. I guess my holding Mana saves me from it. "So do I pass?" I shouted over the screams.

"Yes, now put that thing away!!" The old man yelled hurriedly. I changed them back to normal and put Mana and Darius on opposite sides of my waist. Shea was too big for that, so I slung her on my back and Trel was small enough so he could fit in my sleeve no problem. I tear a piece of fabric in my left sleeve and slide Trel into the resulting hole and barely notice the difference. "So, concerning the ryoka..." He was cut off by his surprise at my reiatsu spiking again. I noticed Unohana-taicho starting to sweat, realized I was doing it again, and got a hold of myself.

"My my. What an impressive reiatsu." Unohana-taicho commented.

"Well, I've got fi...four zanpakuto. You thought it'd be small?" I snapped. Immediately I regretted it and said, "Look, I apologize for my explosion. The ryoka is a touchy subject for me."

"Touchy?"

"Yeah, you see, he's kinda my dad who I haven't seen in ten years."

"WHAT!?" Both the old man and Unohana-taicho shouted.

"Geez! Why is everyone so surprised? Does no one keep tabs on rogue shinigami? And you, old man, what IS your name? I'm tired of thinkin' old man all the time!"

"I am Yamamoto-Genryusai Shigekuni-soutaicho."

"Yeah, I'm not gonna remember that. Yamamoto-soutaicho is good, right?"

"Yes, that is acceptable. As for the rogues, we have not been able to track Tony, or another shinigami who went missing at the same time, Mary..." My reiatsu spiked again, this time involuntarily. I heard the disdain in his voice when he said my mother's name, but I had to learn to control my reiatsu. I had it back down within a second of it building up.

"You mother, I suppose?" Unohana-taicho asked.

"Yeah."

"What is the status of Tony and Mary!?" Yamato demanded.

"Well Dad disappeared into thin air 10 years ago, leaving me and my brothers and sister with Mom and Mom was... she was killed by a Hollow 2 years ago on August 1st."

"I see. So you have no information on the ryoka?"

"None other than the stories Mom told us. Speaking of which, since she's dead and everything, shouldn't she be here somewhere?" I looked up with loads of hope in my face, or at least that's what I was goin' for. I couldn't tell ya if I succeeded since I can't see my own face. In any case, my hope crashed and burned when Unohana-taicho looked at the ground.

_**"Idiot! She was already dead when the Hollow killed her."**_ Mana reminded me.

"OK, stupid question. A better one would be what happens to spirits when they die?" I put forth no hope this time.

"Well, no one knows for sure." Unohana said, seeming to be picking her words. After a gave her a little nod saying I wasn't gonna go off the edge again, she continued. "But since it was a Hollow, 1 of 2 things could've happened: A) The Hollow only killed her and she's been reborn somewhere else or the more likely option B) The Hollow ate her and she, in turn, became a Hollow."

"You mean my mom is out there eating spirits!?" I yelled through gritted teeth.

"If she is lucky." Yamato chuckled. He actually chuckled! I didn't lose my reiatsu, but he did receive a helluva lot of murderous intent. From me AND Unohana-taicho.

"Yamato-soutaicho, I would like to ask you to refrain from any bad humor at Kazumi-kun's mother's expense." she said. Even with that kind smile, those words felt like "Do it again and you die!!"

"R,r,right, Unohana-taicho. My sincerest apologies." Yamato babbled.

"Oy! I'm comin' in!" a gruff voice yelled


	7. Test

Chapter 7: Test

"Oy! I'm comin' in!" a gruff voice yelled. The same gruff voice that got Mayuri to drop me before. True to his word, the bell-head came into the room, zanpakuto- which was all battle scarred and crap- on his shoulder. He took one look at me and attacked. I barely had time to draw Shea in order to defend myself. At that time, I noticed Shea's sheath, Darius, and Mana disappeared. I guess they withdraw to my soul when I have no intention of using them.

"Zanjustu...fail. His stance is awkward. Obviously no training with a sword." Spikes commented as he knocked Shea outta my hands.

"Break them down, Shea!" I yelled before she got too far. She became her shikai and I immediately punched Spikes. He guarded with his zanpakuto, but I pushed him back and shunpo'd behind him for a swift kick to the back of the neck that left him face down on the floor.

"Hakuda...pass." He said as he picked himself up. "His shunpo is very good and augments his fighting ability well."

He turned around and slashed at me, but I used Shea to block it with my left hand and punched Spikes in the gut with my right before he could break through my defense. Spikes doubled over for a second, but came right back up with a huge grin plastered across his face. I think he held back before because his attacks after that became relentless. Slash to the face which I blocked, for the most part (he still caused a huge gash in my cheek); slash to the leg, jumped and kicked him in the face, but it didn't really faze him as he brought his zanpakuto across my stomach. I was just glad it didn't cut too deep. Another one to the arm which I grabbed and threw to the side; a kick to the gut when I wasn't paying attention to it and ended up losing all wind in my lungs. He used that opportunity to score a cut across my arm, which I barely felt.

You see, my body is weird, while I'm doing something like fighting any damage I take will be pretty much unfelt by me until I go idle. Then everything hits me like a two-ton building if my injuries were that bad. In any case, I could see that this wasn't gonna end well if I didn't get more space to fight. After ducking a swing for my head, I backed up against a wall, smashed it, and jumped out as it crumbled. I had a feeling Unohana-taicho did NOT like me smashing in her wall and I could expect a lot of pain later, but for now, I tried not to think about it. Instead, I focused on keeping my fist on Spikes' zanpakuto as it's inches from my throat. Seeing no other option, I reached into my sleeve, drew Trel, and knocked Spikes' blade away. I sheathed him shortly after, since I only intended to use him to save myself, and charged Spikes. And he laughed. He was actually laughing. I felt the grin that had been stuck on my face for the longest time now. He was enjoying this as much as I was.

"Kid, this is way too much fun! And this is only with one zanpakuto! I feel like I can go all out with you! Try not to die, kid."

"This kid has a name! It's Kazumi Montage, and I have no intention of getting so close to death again, Spikes."

"The name's Zaraki Kenpachi, captain of the 11th Division, not Spikes!" He tore off his eye patch and his reiatsu suddenly shot through the roof! I tried blocking his next slash with Shea, but his zanpakuto started to cut through the glove and cut into my hand. I swept his feet, returned Shea to normal, sheathed her, and drew Mana.

"Make them writhe in pain, Mana!" she went shikai and I charged Zaraki. The only problem was I forgot I sucked with swords and anything I did against Asesino was a fluke. Not that any of my zanpakuto thought to remind me of this. Anyways, we clashed at high speeds again and again, me almost losing grip on Mana each time. I think Zaraki was givin' me a crash course in Zanjutsu because he kept doing the same thing over and over again until I could actually hold Mana each time he came at me. After that, Zaraki sped up and got behind me, ready to stab. Straight forward stabs are always easy to dodge, so I leaped to the side and brought Mana down on his hand. It just barely nicked him, but his eyes went huge all of a sudden and he dropped his zanpakuto.

He has utterly silent, but his face told the whole story. It was contorted in complete pain and I figured out why Mana's command was to "Make them writhe in pain". She was like a portable torture device. I couldn't stand looking to him and knowing I'd caused it, so I brought Mana's hilt to the back of his neck and knocked him out.

"I'm gonna catch hell for this later." I thought. He's a captain, which means he's got subordinates, who are gonna jump me for injuring (Well, more like torturing) their captain. Oh man! I decided to go back to the hospital, seeing as it was the only place in Soul Society I knew. I also decided I couldn't leave Zaraki here, so I hoisted him up and was ready to go, but Yamato stopped me.

"What in the world did you do to him!?" the old man shouted.

"Well, now you know why Mana's command is to 'Make them writhe in pain'." I started walkin' towards the hospital, the soutaicho right behind me. Them I staggered and my arms felt like dead weight. Upon closer inspection of my person, I could see and feel the numerous cuts, both tiny and large and bruises left across my arms, chest, legs, and the one on my face. There's my body going idle and me feeling the hurt. The only reason I held on to consciousness was because the soutaicho was there and I refused to pass out in front of him. Unfortunately, somehow during the battle we moved far away from the hospital. I walked OK for the first ten minutes or so, but then Zaraki's weight really started pushing down on me and I limped the rest of the way there. When I saw Isane, I was still bleeding so much, I think I was on the verge of death again.

"Um, hi?" I said. Isane looked at me and shook her head.

C'mon." she sighed, all but dragging me into a room. "Do you not like keeping you blood in your body?" she asked as she closed the heavily bleeding wounds.

"No, I like it. Hell, I love it! But everyone else doesn't seem to." It sounded like a joke, but so far it seemed like it was true. "Hey, Yamato-soutaicho, did I pass whatever the hell kinda test that was?" I asked as Yamato stepped into the room.

"Actually you failed. You passed hakuda, hoho, and endurance, but failed kido, zanjutsu, and strategy, leaving you with a 50%."

"Oh come ON! How many people actually use strategy in the middle of a fight!?"

_**"I do."**_ Darius said.

"Shut up." I growled back.

"Not many, but they pass at least 4 out of the 6."

"So what now, soutaicho?" Isane asked as she dressed my wounds. It occurred to me now to use Darius, but decided against it. That would take energy and reiatsu, two things I was fresh out of.

"After he is rested, he will attend the academy and take a seat in the Gotei 13." Mention of a seat reminded me of a certain ryoka.

"Oy, Yamato-soutaicho, how strong was my dad."

"Enough to kill you over and over again without breaking a single sweat." Unohana-taicho said as she entered the room. I remembered the wall I'd smashed and had visions of Unohana-taicho poisoning my food so I'd implode or destroying me from the inside out with her bare hands or something just as gruesome. I began to shift uncomfortably in bed and Isane saw my distress

"What's your problem?" she whispered.

"In the beginning of my scrap with Zaraki I kinda smashed in a wall to get to more space." I whispered back. She let forth a "Sorry, but you're screwed" moan and backed away.

"He was strong enough to make taicho a long time ago, but the positions were filled. He could've only gotten stronger ever since. In a fight against Zaraki where you came out nearly dead, he would've still had the energy to run around Soul Society a couple of times." With every statement, I felt a blow to my pride and felt significantly weaker. I think this was what Dane Cook was talking about when he said women were mental terrorists. Smart man, that Cook. Now I've gotta look up snarky.

"Well, tying up what Unohana-taicho said, against your dad you'd be dead by now." Yamato said in order to defuse the situation. It worked only because it seemed to remind Unohana-taicho me and her weren't the only ones in the room.

"So made me so I wouldn't be dead. I've got a lot of questions for him and I don't care whether he wants to give me the answer or not. I'm gonna get them." I created a fist and held it in front of my face and watched it shake.

"Your best first step would be the academy." Soutaicho said.

"Then lead me to it!" I jumped outta bed, completely forgetting why I was in the bed in the first place. I was reminded when Isane swept my feet and kicked me, from mid-air, back into my bed.

"You're not going anywhere in your condition." she stated. I think she was takin' lessons from Unohana-taicho in silent torture. She had the kind smile plastered on her face, but everything else about her screamed "Try it again. I dare you. It'll be a quick death for you." Everyone exited the room but, as they were leaving, I could've sworn Unohana-taicho was patting Isane on the back in congratulations.


	8. Present Day

Chapter 8: Present Day

And that brings us to present day, 20 years later. I stayed the usual 6 years at the academy, excelling in hakuda and hoho, struggling with zanjutsu for my first two years, but maintaining good grades in it the other four. I ended up joining a hakuda club in my third year. The people in it all went to either second division or eleventh as far as I know. We sorta lost touch after school. Kido was a bitch! In my first year I kept blowing shit up (mainly myself and everything and everyone around me), in second year I learned I rock with applying reiatsu to wounds to heal them, in fourth year I got bakudo down, but I struggled with hado for all six of my years before being able to do it decently. Even then I could only do basic hado, nothing past number 31.

I was in demand at many of the divisions. Me being so overly big on reiatsu attracted 1st and my instructors constantly commenting on how I loved combat training to the captains got me attention from 11th division (Which surprised the hell outta me. I thought they'd just as soon kill me as look at me, but Kenpachi showed up inviting me to his division for a rematch). Having both excellent hakuda and hoho from the beginning got me 2nd division, whose fukutaicho blindly offered me 3rd seat when I showed no interest in joining. One look in my eyes, and their taicho could tell he's made a huge mistake and I wasn't comin' to the division. She at least had the good grace not to bug me about it after that and beat the shit outta her fukutaicho for it, bringing a huge smile to my face (I decided I may visit, but I'm never joining). 12th looked into me, but I suspect it was for the sole purpose of obtaining a new guinea pig to see the effects of multiple zanpakuto on a soul and I was conveniently placed. He even tried turning Kurotsuchi-fukutaicho into a whore to get me (The poor girl), but I sent her back, fully clothed now (in my clothes) with a letter of rejection (more like me cussing him out for his blatant disregard for his fukutaicho and daughter). Division 13's taicho knew my mother and was sympathetic to what I'd been through, so they decided to recruit me just for that. That didn't go over so well with my pride. My exact actions were spitting at their feet and yelling, "I don't want anyone's sympathy! I wanna be chosen for my skills!".

With my good healing prowess as a grounds for it, 4th wanted to recruit me. Since I was familiar with the taicho and fukutaicho, I decided to go there. It wasn't so bad once you broke it in, or it breaks you in in my case. Unohana-taicho still hadn't completely forgiven me for breaking her wall, but seeing as I still had all my appendages, I decided I was at least partially forgiven. To regain the other 97% of her forgiveness, she had me repair the wall I'd broken better than new, then "accidentally" broke it and had me repair it again. This happened 5 or 6 times before I had her complete forgiveness (That, or she ran outta ways to look innocent after breaking the wall). I am the 5th seat, but I don't have too much leadership experience so I don't have a squad under me. Instead, I got two subordinates from the squad I'll have in the future.

Their names are Menosa Destiny and Iono Kim (Fate's a cruel son of a bitch, eh?). They tend to be a bit clingy and very naïve, making me think they've never fought a Hollow. They have an ongoing fantasy that when they fight a Hollow, it will be this graceful sword dance type of thing from which they'll emerge completely unscathed. No matter how many times I tell them it doesn't work that way, Menosa Destiny will respond, "Just because that was your experience doesn't mean that'll be ours.". I REALLY need to break that fantasy soon. Outside of that, Iono-chan is about 5'0" with a slim build and an average chest. She has short purple hair (Again fate slaps me!) that I want to tell her to dye but I always end up thinkin' it's not fair to push my experiences on her. Menosa-chan (who insists I call her Destiny instead, which is fine with me. I'm not really into the formal stuff) is 5'3" and an average build with an above average chest (I mean really above average), though she's not as open about it as Toshiro's fukutaicho, Matsumoto Rangiku. She's got white hair VERY similar to Isane's (whenever I ask about it, Destiny insists Insane stole her style, which causes many problems when Isane is actually in the room). I don't know either of their zanpakutos since there's never been a reason for them to show them.

Now, you're probably thinkin' it must suck being shorter than my subordinates, right? Well, seeing as I was a 12 year old soul, I did some growing up. I'm about 5'7" now and I've adopted Mana's dull black eyes. I can change back to barely visible brown at any time, but choose not to. I see this as moving on though my family sees it as just plain funny, don't ask, I don't know why. In any case, I've never been good with names, so I don't remember many of the people in the division's name. I made a mental note about Yamada Hanatoro since he helped Ichigo anywhere between 25 or 30 years ago, he's kinda fun to be around, and he's already got a squad (In that respect, he's what I want to be).

Everything's at peace except for the unseen war between our division and 11th. Apparently they think the 4th is a division of wimps and we prove them otherwise by doing something they can't or kicking their asses. With my addition into their ranks, 11th has a better opinion of 4th, but now gives the excuse "One good fighter does not equal a division of fighters." even though I could probably take everyone there below 5th seat all at once with no sweat. Ayasegawa Yumichicka has this energy drain zanpakuto, I only know this because I managed to wheedle it outta 9th division's Shuhei Hisagi, that I'd rather not try out. Madarame Ikkaku is just too wild to be fought with anyone else unless you'd like several hundred stabs because you weren't fully energized. Kuasjishi Yachiru is just too fast! I raced her once with Darius at full power, or at least as much as I can draw out right now, and I lost by miles. In any case, there was once a unseated idiot that said there claim right in front of Unohana-taicho and Isane (I know she's my fukutaicho, but I can't bring myself to say Kotetsu-fukutaicho. She doesn't seem to mind anyway) as I was rounding the corner. The fact both of them were there giving him silent torture was enough to make him shit himself, then I snuck up behind him and patted his shoulder. He flew about 5 feet in the air and ran away as best he could with diaper pants as we laughed our asses off. Life, I mean afterlife, was good until Yamato-jii calls me into his office August 2nd.

"What 'cha need, Yamato-soutaicho?" I ask casually. He groans and pinches the bridge of his nose. Turns out, he disliked my mom because of her informality when speaking to him, a trait I seem to have inherited. In any case, I knew it wasn't for a picnic. He only called people lower than captain into his office for an assignment or bad news. I was really hoping it was the former.

"There's a Hollow causing havoc around the Living World. We were content with its existence since it seemed to restrain itself from eating soul, but recently it's been eating human souls left and right." Yamato informs me

"And no one else is better qualified?

"We believe this Hollow has a certain significance to you, Kazumi. Remember the scenarios Unohana-taicho ran for you when you first arrived?" Right now, no I don't. My most prevalent memory of that day is my fight with Kenpachi (I tried to call him Zaraki-taicho once. He then laughed and said, "Seeing as you defeated me, it feels a little weird havin' you call me taicho. You're not allowed too 'til I win!") so I have to dig a little to remember the Hollow scenario.

"I understand." I say in an ice cold voice very different from my usual one. "Oy, Yamato-jii, can I bring a few people." I could see him cringe at the informality I displayed there, "If I see the identity of the Hollow is as we believe it to be, I don't trust myself to cleanse it."

"Permission granted. Leave immediately"


	9. My Team

Chapter 9: My Team

" Destiny! Iono-chan! Get over here, stat!" I shout ten minutes later. I spent them thinking about the situation I was in and what to do about it.

"Alright already!" Destiny yawns from her quarters.

"Yes, sir! Right away, sir!" Iono-chan shouts from hers across the way. Iono-chan comes out fully dressed and ready to go within seconds while it takes Destiny 2 minutes to drag herself out sleepily and barely wearing anything. Just a sports bra and some panties. I could fee la nosebleed coming on and was glad my skin color prevented blushing.

"We're going to the Living World. Destiny, please get some clothes on!" At the news we were goin' to the LW, Destiny completely awakens and races back to her room, only to emerge seconds later fully dressed. "And Iono-chan, I asked you to stop callin' me sir. It just feels weird."

"Geez, you're really too uptight! Right, Tage?" Destiny laughs

"Kazumi-san is GOING to be leading a squad one day, Destiny! He's got to get used to sir or Kazumi-sama before then." Iono-chan snaps.

"Even when I get my squad they're all callin' me Montage, Montage-kun, or Tage. Anything outside of that will be unacceptable and I will not answer."

"Understood M, m, m, Montage-kun." Iono-chan practically whispers that and a blush crawls across her face.

"See! Now was that so hard?" Destiny asks while patting her roughly on the back.

"Yes, it was. And would you stop slapping my back, Destiny, it hurts!"

"So, Tage, why are we going Live side?" At that remark, my joyous mood vanishes and is replaced by a dark one. The other two immediately pick up on this mood change and settle down.

"There's a Hollow devouring large quantities of souls fresh outta the humans. We've been sent to cleanse it." I report. Destiny gives me a funny look while Iono-chan still looks worried over my sudden change in mood.

Destiny, being the blunt one of the two, finally asks, "But why US? I mean, I'd think the old man would put a Division 4 member LAST on his list of shinigami."

"There is a possibility that the Hollow is my mom." At those 10 words, the mood in the room takes a HUGE turn, almost matching mine.

"But this is something you should deal with privately m, m , m , Montage-kun. Why were we selected?" Iono-chan asks very gently, even though I could tell she was very bothered by the turn of events.

"If it turns out it is my mom, I don't trust myself to cleanse her, so I'm trusting you two instead." After this I smile and say, "I hope I didn't make a mistake doing that."

Destiny takes up her usual cocky grin and declares, "Don't worry about it, Tage! You can trust us with your life, well soul in this case, and we wouldn't betray it!"

"I'm right behind Destiny M, M, M, Montage-kun." Iono-chan perks up

"Hey, how come you struggle to say Montage-kun, but you can so easily say my name!?"

"Because I've known you for so long it's natural versus the 12 I've known M, M, Montage-kun."

"Alright, alright. Enough." I cough through suppressed laughter. "If we don't get goin' soon we're gonna get there in the middle of the night."

"Right!" they both salute as we run off.

_**"Are you sure it's a good idea to trust these two?" **_Shea asks.

_**"I'm gonna have to agree with Shea on this one"**_ Darius says. _**"They've never even fought a Hollow before. How can you trust them when the time arrives?"**_

_**"Have the years turned you cold and blind?"**_ I ask them. _**"You trusted me with your lives when I had no experience in killin' after Mom died."**_

_**"Of course we trusted you. You're family. The girls, though, are not."**_ Trel responds

_**"Mana isn't family and I know you trust her. And since she's not saying anything, I know she's not as blind as you guys have become"**_

_**"What's this 'blind' thing you keep pulling up?"**_ Shea asks.

_**"You don't see the potential these girls have!? They could be stronger than Tage, even if that isn't saying much"**_ Mana says

_**"Why I oughtta..."**_

"Tage, we're here. Stop zonin'!" Destiny says while shaking the crap outta me, taking me outta my convo with my family and Mana. I look around and I notice the senkaimon staring me dead in the face. I wait for a jigokucho to show up so we can go through safely.

As soon as it does, I yell,"Alright. Let's go." as we follow the jigokucho through the gate


	10. Human Again

Chapter 10: Human Again

As soon as we land, I take a deep breath of fresh air. Then I remember I don't have lungs yet so the gesture's kinda wasted.

"Right! You girls know where Kisuke is right?" I ask my sole companions.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just go track down your body." Destiny waves me off.

"We will report in soon, si... I mean Montage-kun." Iono-chan bows then runs after Destiny.

I shut my eyes and focus on my own pulse, my own faintly radiating reiatsu. I find it in the Ishida Hospital and dash right into the room. There were two doctors, one fat and one of average build, about to unhook my life support, deciding to just end my misery after 20 years. To prevent that, I jump right in and start hacking like crazy. It feels weird having actual lungs and a beating heart to worry about. My body, which has grown right along with me, feels as stiff as an ironing board and heavy as a two-ton brick. Worse was all the muscles I had worked so hard for (not really, everything I did caused those muscles) were gone, leaving me with a basic frame. I'd have to fill it back out later. The doctors apparently couldn't be bothered to clip my hair, so now it's in dreads and I have an itchy, bushy beard surrounding my mouth. Overall, I looked like a hobo. I decided to pin it on the 20 years my body's just been sitting here and leave it at that. I get my breathing, actual breathing!, down to normal and hop out of bed. I immediately collapse onto the floor, seeing that my legs had gone weak from disuse. I've gotta use this thing more often. I don't feel like goin' through this every time I wanna use this thing. Wow, I'm referring to my own body as a thing. A little weird to me. Anyway, the doctors stop giving me the "What the fuck stare and move to help me up. I wave them off, grab a bed post, and take a fer torturous steps. Seeing I could trust my legs to hold me up, I jump in place for a bit while holding on to the bed post to fully break them in. Then I start some arm exercises and finish with my neck before turning my attention to the doctors.

"Oy! Kack!!" My throat feels dry and irritated. I rip open a sack full of water and drink deeply, enjoying the cooling feeling spreading through my body. After wiping my mouth, I try again. "Oy! Shouldn't you be reporting to someone or somethin'? I want to get discharged ASA now!". I take a moment to survey my own voice. Deep, emotions in it easily identifiable, and still a little gravelly from disuse, though I'm sure that part will go away soon. If I wanted it to be, my voice could probably be very soothing.

The doctors scramble outta the room, screaming for a Dr. Ishida the entire way. I walk to the door way and back to kill time and further strengthen my legs as I wait. When they run back, a doctor with white hair and glasses calmly followed them. They start babbling about the living dead for a bit while Dr. Ishida examined me. Seeing nothing wrong, he says, "Stop talking about that living dead nonsense as there is no such thing and if there was, he was never dead in the first place. One of you two go get the discharge forms." The fat one flew down the hallway, making me think that he was still hung up on the zombie subject. 2 minutes later, he returns with a bunch of paper. "Fill this out and get out." Ishida says as he leaves the room. I got the feeling he hated me, but I had no idea why since I'd never met the guy before. Maybe it's because I do more business at the Kurosaki clinic than here? Oh well, that's enough of that. I fill out the release forms in 6 seconds flat and drop them off at the desk. The receptionist silently gives me my wallet (with a hefty amount taken out for hospital bills) and points me to a clothes shop within the hospital. Good thing too, I'd been dreading the idea of goin' outside wearing nothin' but a hospital gown that barely covers me up and fuzzy, pink bunny slippers. I buy a pair of blue boxers, some black jeans, a white undershirt, some socks, a primarily gray polo with red, white, and black stripes, and a black and red pair of converses. I'll do a full run later, when I had more money and when I'm sure it'll be a while before the Hollow pops up. The hospital really took the bills out of my wallet. I don't remember what I was thinkin', but I was glad I left a wallet full of money in my pocket that day.

I feel like checking on the old house before going to the Urahara shop. Surprisingly, it's still standing and not up for sale. Because of that, it's not a surprise when I go inside and find that no one bothered cleaning up. Blood still cakes the walls, floor, and ceiling; the ceiling itself is just a hunk of splintered wood that I am surprised didn't collapse in on itself; the floor has red foot prints and puddles so wide spread, it's like someone attempted to paint the place red but dropped the paint and walked all over the place instead. The place feels like death, that's the simplest way I can put it. I swear to pick the place up when I'm done at Urahara's and shunpo off. Then I remember I can't do that. What if, by some impossible chance, someone saw me? I'd have a hard time explaining that. And, more importantly, my human legs just can't handle shunpo right now. So I maintain a steady jog for the 5 miles separating my house from Urahara's shop. By the time I get there, I remember how sweat on skin feels and how it glitters in the light given by the full moon.

"Montage-kun! We were beginning to worry." Iono-chan says as soon as I arrive

"Yeah? Well, I had to break my body in. It HAS been 20 years since it last moved." I say, a slight pant going on.

"You could've just grabbed one of my gigai." Kisuke stated, popping out of the shadows in his rumored fashion. The hat and clogs don't seem to have changed even though Unohana-taicho last saw him centuries ago.

"I could've, but then my body would be in a morgue 'cause the doctors decided to cut me off. 'Sides, it feels kinda good to be human again."


	11. A Shocker

Chapter 11: A shocker

Urahara, the pervert, did give the girls a gigai, but what he didn't include was a vital part of any society I will ever live in called CLOTHES. My shirt is baggy enough to fit Iono-chan down to the knees while I give Destiny my undershirt and jeans.

"This shirt is crushing my boobs!" Destiny complained, grunting in pain to emphasize her point.

"Would you like to walk around topless?" I ask, very grateful my body is still resistant to cold due to Mom's training (Mon937: Maybe I'll make a mini-series about that, but I know for sure it won't pop up in this one). Autumn is generally not a good season to be standing in nothing but boxers.

"I'm fine, thank you." Destiny blushes and Iono-chan's blush becomes a deeper shade of red than I've ever seen on her face before.

_**"Yes you are."**_ Darius says in a silky kinda voice.

_**"Darius, are ya THAT bored?" **_Trel asks him.

_**"What, I can't appreciate a good-lookin' girl?"**_ There's suddenly two very loud smacks in my soul.

_**"So what does that make us!?" **_Shea yells, referring to Mana and herself.

_**"My sister and a girl who'd sooner kill me than kiss me. 'Sides you're not much to look at anyway."**_ At that, I sense a pair of murderous intent in my soul. They may not be interested in Dare, but that doesn't mean they'll take that insult laying down.

_**"RUN, DARE! RRRUUUUUUNNNNNNN!!!!"**_ Trel yells, imitating Shortie off of Scary Movie (Not mine but the way) and dying of laughter, I fall to the floor laughing my ass off too, scaring the shit outta the girls in the Material World since they can't see or hear what's going on in my soul.

"Si...I mean M, Montage-kun! What's wrong!" Iono-chan says, rushing over to my side. She grabs my head, treating me to a look down her (well, my) shirt. I manage to shut my eyes and turn the nosebleed down to a trickle that I cover up by smashing my head into the ground.

"Sorry!" I breathe in between laughs. "My family.. is just...very weird." After a few minutes, my laughter dies down and Dare is still on the run. "OK, first order of business is..." Urahara then charges into the room with a camera yelling, "Say cheese!" I make to slash the camera with a nonexistent zanpakuto, but, by some strange irony, a black cat jumps right in front of the camera and he took the shot. Who knew black cats could be lucky creatures too? While he's yelling at the cat for reasons I can't fathom- I mean, the cat's licking itself, how's it gonna understand him?- I grab the girls and shunpo down to the basement. I'll admit, it was a very slow shunpo, but it got the job done. "Alright, from the top. First order of business is getting some clothes. Unfortunately, Shea's old clothes at the house aren't gonna fit ya and we can't very well go out in public wearing what we're wearing.

"Sir, you're not suggesting we..." Iono-chan says

"Unless you've got a better idea, we've gotta do this." Destiny claimed.

Iono-chan sighs and says, "OK, but where are we to hide our gigais and/or bodies? I do not exactly trust Urahara-san."

"We'll stash them at my house for now. I honestly doubt anyone will go in there right now with it looking like something outta a horror movie. Just to be safe, we'll go to the third floor, seeing as it's now impossible to reach from the second normally. This "third floor" is actually a really big attic. The ladder leading to the third floor is hovering over the center of the that is the second floor, making it very near impossible for normal humans to get to.

"OK, let's go!" Destiny says and prepares to take off.

"HOLD IT!!" Iono-chan yells and Destiny almost trips over herself.

"What the hell!?"

"We've gotta decide who carries Kazu... I mean Montage-kun. His shunpo is...shaky, at best, in his human body right now."

"I'll do it!" Destiny immediately volunteers, scooping me up onto her back before I could object. "Let's go!" At that, they race off to my house while I shout directions. Iono-chan is cautious the entire way, always holding her shirt down due to a complete lack of undergarments. In about five minutes we reach my house and all its gory glory. The girls step in and fall into sheer shock at the amount of blood splashed everywhere. Destiny recovers first, after about 7 minutes.

"So, how much of this is yours?" she asked nonchalantly. Her eyes and face were broadcasting anything BUT nonchalantness, but I decide not to bring that up.

"Let's see. There's that huge pile right there where Asesino impaled me on a spear. Then from the pale, the random splatters are from when I hit the floor." I point over a little left from the center of the room. "Mana stopped the bleeding, so there's no more until over here," I point near the door, "Where she impaled me and the rest of my family. Then the bloodstained walls are from Asesino hacking me family into zanpakuto and doing the same with my arm." I mindlessly blurt out.

"Wait a second! You had a zanpakuto made after you!?" Iono-chan shrieks. Damn! Me and my big mouth! I let slip my ace-in-the-hole without thinking. Time for damage control.

"Yeah, I sorta did. At the time, it only had the soul of my arm, but it's been filling up with my soul for 20 years now. Only, this is my trick up the sleeve, so..."

"You need it kept a secret so it stays a trick, right?" Destiny reasons

"Right. I can trust you with that, right?"

"You can trust me with anything as long as we can hurry this up and get some clothes." Iono-chan jokes. Destiny and I had to do a double take at Iono-chan. I only knew her for 12 years so I couldn't judge, but Destiny had this look on her face that said in all the 93 years she'd known Iono-chan, she'd never heard Iono-chan one joke. Instead of dwelling on it, I crack up and laugh even though the joke wasn't funny. Soon after, Destiny starts laughing and after that Iono-chan. I've been accused many times of having a disease. It's called Contagious Laugh and anyone hearing me laugh will at least chuckle. It's proven, I've even gotten the soutaicho to laugh. It was one of the single most disturbing things I'd ever heard. It was like a donkey got drunk and couldn't remember how to bray properly. I made a mental note never to make Yamato-jii laugh again.

"Well, in any case," I say as we calm down, "Let's get situated here." I climb the stairs to the second floor, creep around the edge, and leap for the ladder. Thank goodness I got it, or the other two would be laughing for an entirely different reason. I climb up to the third floor and froze. There's a shrine here to Darius, Shea, and Trel set up next to the one we set up for Mom! There were also flowers that didn't even look a day old yet. When I walk a little further in, I see a picture of me, in a coma, with thousands of paper prayers. I wasn't even aware people did this anymore!

_**"I wonder who did this."**_ Shea thought aloud. I wonder if she and Mana have captured Darius, but this seemed like a bad time to ask.

"I only have a slight clue, but this means two things: A) I'm not as severed from the Living World as I thought and B) This floor isn't as secure as I thought.


	12. Raid

Chapter 12: Raid

Before I get too far, you've gotta understand, I know nothing about the Japanese yen and don't feel like making fun of it by making up numbers, so I'm gonna part the equivalent of however many US dollars whenever I talk about money. Unless someone can explain the yen to me. Then I may edit it in.

"OY, Tage! Let's ditch the gigai already!" Destiny calls up from the second floor, breaking me from my thoughts. It was then I start panicking. Should I let them see this or not?

_**"Alright, group census: Should Destiny and Iono-chan see this or not?"**_ I asked my zanpakutos. Immediately my brother answer, _**"NOT!!"**_ as loudly as they can, leaving my ears ringing. I stick my pinky finger in my ear and give it a twist like a volume control to cut down the sound. Shea votes to let them see, so now it's all up to Mana. If she votes no, then I go downstairs and say that the third floor's rotted so much that it'd be hazardous for my body and the gigais to stay up there. If it was yes, then I'd be back to square one.

_**"Yeah, let them see it."**_ Mana says. Great, back to square one. _**"You'd be insulting them by telling them about your ace but not showing them this."**_ Even though the ace thing was an accident, Mana's got a point. I make my decision really fast after that.

"Hey, girls! Get up here, there's somthin' I've gotta show ya." Within seconds they reach the third floor and once again get lost in shock. They start moving through the room, touching every flower, Destiny examining every paper prayer with a dull, blank look in their eyes.

"Did you do this?" Iono-chan asks finally losing the look, replacing it with a look of utter pity. I hate that look instantly

"Don't be an idiot, Kim!" Destiny says as she walks past the prayer station again. "All flowers are brand-spankin' new. There's no way Tage could've done that. 'Sides, I doubt he'd write about him being in a coma." Iono-chan had obviously missed it and runs over to where my prayer station is, well, stationed in the top left corner of the room. She reads the first 10.

"Oh wow. The calligraphy is just...wow! So careful, so precise... I can not even write like that!"

"WHAT!?" I yell. Iono-chan's calligraphy is the best ones I've ever seen. It's breathtaking just to watch her make it and the product itself it just as awe inspiring. This person must be a Calligraphy God! She reaches for the bottom of the stack and makes a face like she just smelled a bag of dog shit.

"Well...it's still careful, but the calligraphy itself...not good at all. Whoever has been doing this has been improving as the went along. For you." I sit there, completely shocked that someone would be doing this for me. I turn to tell Iono-chan this, but am cut off by a nosebleed, breaking my revering mood.

"Let's not dwell on this now, we've got more than enough time later. But RIGHT NOW, Iono-chan, the way you're bending over has me lookin' the other way." She has her body making a L-shape, which causes the shirt to only cover the top of her butt. She immediately realizes what I mean and snaps to attention, blushing so madly that it spreads from her face to her fingertips.

"Can we please go now?" shy just barely whispers. Without further ado, we slip outta our gigais/body and shunpo out the attic window. I've only been in a body for a couple of hours, but I've missed the lightness of spirit form and the quickness of shunpo. We shunpo to an abandoned house along the way (cliché, huh?)

"Alright, meet back at the house when you're done." I say and we all go our separate ways.

_**"Um, how well do they know Karakura?"**_ Mana asks.

"Oh shit! Run through them, Darius!" I use Darius' speed to make maps of Karakura based on my memories, which are pretty good strangely. I usually forget everything not related to my day-to-day life. In any case, after I draw the maps, I drag the girls back to the abandoned house. I sheath Darius and ask, "Do you have any idea where you were going?"

"Now that I think about it, no." Iono-chan says.

"Well, you were headed for the outskirts of town and Destiny was headed for the red light district. I doubt you would've found anything you liked in either of those locations." Destiny's face completely drains of color and she looks like she fell into a pit of memories or something, but shinigami like them are supposed to forget the details of their human life so I push that off. Iono-chan just sighs in relief. I hand them both the maps I made and we're off again. I'm back in the house in 2 hours with enough clothes to last for 2 months and figure the girls won't be back for a while longer, so I slip into my gi... I mean body and dress in blue jeans, a sky blue shirt saying "Tiempo" and a white pair of Nikes. I then go to buy 6 dressers (two per person), 3 beds (all king sized), an alarm clock, lots and lots of the strongest cleaning fluid I could find, masks, gloves, an easy ring mop, a large bucket, and loads of wood. Man I wish there was a Wal-Mart or something here because I had to travel all over town just to get all this material. And I'm in my body, so I have to either walk or flag down a taxi to get somewhere. Anyways, I wonder whether to ditch my body, carry all this crap back to the house and come back for it later.

_**"Dude, do you know how weird it'd be to see objects flying across the place?" **_Trel says in response. I've been in Soul Society too long. I'm starting to think being in Shinigami form is normal to all. I call a moving company to bring all that stuff to the house and leave it on the first floor and move on to an ATM. It's been a while since my family's underground days and I need to see how much I have left to live on. As soon as that screen shows my balance, I feel my eyes quadruple in size and my mouth hit the floor as it babbles things I, or the people around me, will probably never understand. I see that my money has multiplied over the years and is now the equivalent of 75 million US dollars!! And this is after I spent thousands buying all this stuff to repair the house! I'm not gonna have to worry about money again for a LONG time, probably longer than my body can live. So what happens a couple of decades down the line? Oh well, I'll think about it when the time comes. I jog back to the house and start gathering all the materials when Destiny steps through the door with so many bags that she's just barely visible. Why she stole bags for those to go in, I don't know so don't ask.

"About time." I say. "Any idea when Iono-chan's coming back?"

"None. She's a VERY big shopper. Well, I guess thief right now. Either way, you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at her." Destiny goes upstairs and comes back down in her gigai dressed in a simple black T-shirt but off above the belly, a pair of khaki pants, and a pair of Nikes VERY similar to mine. All in all, it looks almost like a man's style (would be a man's style if not for the shirt) but I decide to keep that comment to myself. I gesture for her to sit on the floor and relax while Iono-chan gets back here. We just sit there awkwardly, not saying a thing for the longest time. OK, it couldn't have been longer than 10 minutes, but when you're usually surrounded by noise, that much silence is disturbing.

_**"Man, this is borin'." **_Shea says

_**"Don't you have a game or something to lighten the mood?" **_Darius asks. I think for a second, then run up to my old room (cautiously since the broken floor is partly in my room) and grab a dusty game of Monopoly..

"You know how to play, right?" I ask Destiny when I come back down.

"No, but I can learn."

"Fair enough." We start playing and, me being the competitive bastard I am, give her no leeway and win the first game. I try to ease up in the second one, but to no avail and I sweep the floor with her. We're smack in the middle of the third game, where Destiny was startin' to show signs of a comeback, when Iono-chan walks in, at 2 in the morning, carrying so many stolen bags that she's hunched over when she kicks in the door and has to crouch even farther down to order to get through the door. I wouldn't want to challenge her in a game of limbo 'cause she was getting' LOW. I wonder just how low can she go.

"Hey, hey ,hey, Kim, wanna play Monopoly with us. C'mon, c'mon!" she says, flipping the board in the process.

"No thanks **Yawns**. I'm really tired from dragging all these clothes home. I'm going to go to sleep." Iono-chan drags the clothes up to the third floor and I hear a large **Thunk**. I go up and see Iono-chan has hit the floor and is not getting up anytime soon.

"Well, we'll call it a day for now." I say to Destiny. "Pick anywhere that looks like it'll be somewhat comfortable and get some sleep." I crash on the floor of Shea's old room.


	13. Family

Chapter 13: Family

At 12, as I've set on the alarm clock (it's an old fashioned one since we're getting' no electricity right now), we get up and move the dressers, mattresses and wood broken from the first floor ceiling out of the way. For now, we set the dressers and beds outside on the left side of the house and the broken, bloody wood on the curb in front of the house so that the trash men will pick it up. With everything out of the way, we don some masks (because the guy said the cleaning fluid will give off a strong smell when I bought it) and gloves and get to work on the walls. As we wipe the blood off with rags I'm pretty damn sure are never getting used again, I notice we're also wiping away the soft brown of the walls and replacing it with a harsh white an eyesore against the old colors still in the kitchen and along the walls of the stairs.

"Man! This sucks!" Destiny shouts 20 minutes after we started

"I'm going to have to agree with Destiny on this one, M,m, Montage-kun." Iono-chan says.

"OK, so let's try it without the flesh." I suggest. We stash our gigais/body on the third floor and go back to the wall. We can now get much more of the blood off the wall with way less effort, though Destiny occasionally puts too much pressure on the wall on it starts to crumble. "Ease up a little, Destiny!" I shout. She immediately pulls back a little and I think about how I've got something I need to fix. With each of us taking a different wall, we get 3 out of 4 of the walls done in about 2 hours (that's how caked in the blood was). I stop them from going to the last wall (the door wall). "We're gonna need a broom and as much air freshener as you can buy with (the equivalent of) $50." I hand them the money and they get in their gigai and are out the door before I can get another word in. I shrug that off and get to work cleaning that last wall. I was just getting through the door when the two of them crash through the thing. With me still on the other side of it. I smash into the wall and am stuck there while they're holding the door. I hear them shouting something, but am in too much pain to understand what they are saying. I think it is my name, but I can't be sure. Finally, they move away from the door to the middle of the room. I push the door closed and take a shaky step forward.

"Hey, Tage, where were ya?" Destiny asks. I almost feel like attacking. I mean ALMOST.

"Hm, let's see. I went missing the same time you frickin' crashed into the door and I was cleaning the wall next to the door when you left. Put two and two together." They stand there for only a second, then they figure it out and start apologizing at 20mph. When they collectively reach 100 apologies in 1 minutes, I wave them off and grab the broom. I sweep 20 years worth of dust, the blood flaky enough to some off, and little fly bodies that appeared when we started using the cleaning fluid (that alone was enough to convince me to wear the mask at all times) out the door and give the mop bucket a little water. I then "ask" Destiny to pour the cleaning fluid into the water and just as "gently" "ask" Iono-chan to start mopping while Destiny and I start on the ceiling. We clean the little blood that managed to get on the ceiling and use a tape measurer I found in Darius' room (and was surprised still works) to measure the hole so I know how to cut the wood to fit it in.

It was after this I feel a trio of Hollows appear, but I can immediately tell none of them are THE Hollow. I tell the girls to keep up the repairs and rush to meet them. I pull out Shea and slash across the mask of a deer-looking one, immediately cleansing it. The bull one next to me takes and swing, but I flip off it's arm and carve down from the tip of the middle finger to the base of the arm, then cut off the arm. The Hollow screams and I stab the mask to shut it up. The last one, a scorpion type, sneaks up on me somehow and throws its tail at me. I see it out of the corner of my eye last second and I jump to the left to avoid it. It's times like this I hate the Okatana since it requires two hands to wield effectively. With any other zanpakuto, I could've caught the tail and cut it off. I jump towards the Hollow and it sends its tail at me again. I bash it with the hilt and use the momentum to flip around and ax-kick the Hollows mask, shattering it and cleansing the Hollow. I sheath Shea, thinking I should've had one of the girls do it to break through their fantasy, and shunpo back to the house. To find Destiny and Iono-chan sitting there laughing. My first impulse is to bust in and start yelling, but I check it. I decide we've done enough work for the day and simply knock on the door I left open after they crashed through. They jump.

"Um, we were just, uh..." Destiny starts

"We were simply, uh..." Iono-chan says. I raise my hand.

"Instead of giving me some bullshit lie, why don't you help me move the stuff back in." I say.

"Yes, si..." I give her the death glare. "I mean, Montage." Now I give her a wide eyed stare of surprise.

"Wow, you didn't stutter through my name. And you dropped the -kun."

"Yes. Destiny talked me into it."

"Yeah, I figure since we're all under the same roof, why can't we drop the honorifics?" Destiny says, grinning majorly

"I like your reasoning!" Don't you, Kim?" I laugh. And because of Contagious Laugh the other two start chuckling.

"Yes, I do. It feels like a family in here." They start saying something else, but I'm miles away. I'm too busy having a war with myself. Should I be calling anyone family after what happened with my last one?

_**"Oh, get over it and move on!" **_Shea shouts.

_**"I agree. If you're holding on to the past, how can you reach for the future?" **_Darius says.

_**"Nicely said, Dare."**_

_**"Thanks. I try."**_

_**"As long as you don't forget your original one and learn from them, then you're free to call whoever the hell you want family."**_Trel says

_**"Wow, that didn't sound slow at all. That's not like you at all Trel."**_ I joke

_**"Oh shut up."**_ We laugh our butts off in my soul and I decide to turn my thoughts back to the Material World.

"Well, this is one of the most jacked up families I've ever seen." I comment to the girls. "I say one because my first one will always be the most jacked up." My original family screams HEY at me, but start laughing 'cause they know it's true.

We move the wood for the ceiling to the left side of the kitchen, put the dressers near the stairs, and spread the beds out all over the first floor. First I prepare the wood so we can repair the ceiling first thing tomorrow, then I hop in my bed and KO immediately.


	14. First Encounter

Chapter 14: First Encounter

We get our sleep. It's as we're walking up, though, that I find out Destiny goes to sleep naked. She throws off her cover to reveal she's wearing nothing but her birthday suit and I immediately start bleeding out.

"Destiny! Put some clothes on now!" Kim shouts.

"Sorry!" Destiny says in a casual tone. "I thought I was doin' you a favor. Geez."

"If it's alright with you, make it a favor that involves clothes next time. Or at least give me a heads up. I don't have an infinite amount of blood, you know." I say as I clean up my nose with loads of tissue and start cleaning the blood off the floor. Once everything calms down, we repair the ceiling and decide the paint the walls today. The problem is that the girls want to paint the walls of the living room a different color.

"DARK BLUE!!" Destiny shouts

"LIGHT YELLOW!" Kim counters.

"WELL, TAGE, WHICH ONE IS IT!?" They turn on me. I want it to go back to the traditional brown that was here 'til the fluids destroyed it.

"Well how about this: You guys paint your room whatever color you want and the living room will match the rest of the house."

"Yeah, that'll work." Destiny says

"I will agree." Kim says. What they don't realize is that the rest of the house is the traditional brown. And they don't figure that out 'til we're home with the paint. After I've gotten them to agree to it on paper. "That is underhanded!"

"And Unohana-taicho's torture methods aren't?" I counter. We're about two seconds front touching the brush to the wall when a gigantic reiatsu shows up. And the worse part is it's so familiar that I'm feeling pain all over my soul and I feel my eyes become waterfalls without my permission. "This is it." I say, my voice cold steel even as the tears continued to fall off my cheeks. "Get out of the gigai. NOW!" At my command they jump out of their gigai and I remove myself from my body and we charge out the door. Kim stops to lock the door on the way out and I give her a stare so cold that she actually started wrapping her arms around herself. I wanted to go full blast to get to her before she disappeared, but some part of my mind was still rational and screamed at me not to leave the girls alone, so I shunpo'd at roughly their speed. In a matter of seconds we reach my mom and see she's one of those humanoid Hollows.

"An Arrancar." Kim whispers

"You expected my mom to be so weak she'd stay a Hollow?"

"Mom? Hmmm..." the Arrancar says. Her voice is exactly how I remember it: Her sweet, Floridan accent, the pen point accuracy of her words as if she was thinking of her words long before you even said anything, and the underlying emotion you have to learn to listen for. This one says curiosity. Because of this, Mom could never hide her emotions from us. Her appearance is almost nothing like Mom's though. Mom's face was gentle and had laugh lines and had soft brown eyes that felt like they were healing your soul. This Arrancar has a steel plated face with Mom's sleek, waist length black hair covered partially at the top by half a mask that looked like it was under used and her eyes look like they are trying to cut me even before she draws her sword. Below the face everything is the similar though: The awkward way she stands, the way she absent-mindedly crossed her arms in front of her average chest- much like the way I do- the muscle-y yet smooth and slim figure. Hell, even the fingernail length was right. I'd know since Mom was VERY specific about the length of her nails: 3 millimeters from the tip of her finger. Any higher meant extra training sessions, any lower meant harsher and more frequent training sessions and we didn't want either of those.

"Aaah, yes. I remember you." Mom says, breaking me from my memories and causing me to go for Darius (there was NO WAY I was using Mana on Mom). I caught the underlying fury in her voice. "Tsh. I guess I need to find better help. I thought for sure Asesino would get all of you." That one sentence sent my heart flying to the farthest regions of sorrow imaginable. Tony trying to kill me is one thing, I hardly knew the man and he was considered one of my enemies, but Mom sending assassins TO me instead of AWAY, that tore me apart. I barely could keep standing, could feel my hand slipping from Darius.

_**"OY! PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!!!" **_Mana commands. All the rest of my family is silent. Kim is tearing up for me and Destiny looks about two seconds from foolishly punching Mom in the face, but Mana sounded completely unaffected. _**"This is the Hollow talking to ya, not your mother. She is making you either drop your guard or charge blindly. You can't allow her to do either. CLEANSE HER AND MOVE ON!" **_she rages. That snaps my heart back. That's right! This has got to be the Hollow in Mom saying this! The sooner I cleanse her, the sooner all of us can laugh this off. I draw Darius and imitate Byakuya's move where he moves at extreme speeds and stabs spirit points. Unfortunately, Mom is too fast and Darius is ripped from my hands. I don't think she thought Darius was a tsurugi since his back edge cut through her skin. She yelps in surprise, backs up and releases Darius

"Geez, Mom could always find a way to cut herself on anything." I mutter as I catch the falling tsurugi

"Get this straight, Kazumi O..." Mom started in fury.

"Dammit, don't use my full name like that!" I quake. Whenever Mom used our full names, we were royally screwed. I still can't stand to hear my full name by anyone older than me to this day.

"OK, then, Montage!" I am not Bilicot Mary! I am Arrancar No.137, 'Analgesico' Existencia Olvida, partner to Asesino Muerto!" She declares, rushing at me so fast I can barely see it, much less defend against it.

So I am very surprised when Kim yanks me to safety, only getting a little cut on her arm in the process.

"Shit!" Destiny yells. She grabs me and tries to run away. I stop her by tripping her.

"What's your fucking problem!?" You gonna leave Kim?" I shout. She looks at me like a relative has died or something.

"Kim IS the problem."

"What?"

"You see, she's kinda got Dissociative Identity Disorder and it shows every time she gets cut."

"Woah, back up. What the hell is Dissociative Identity Disorder?"

"She's got split personality."


	15. Meet Diz

Chapter 15: Meet Diz

And it becomes painfully clear how different the personalities are immediately. For one, her sword is unsheathed and flying at Mom, I mean Olvida, in milliseconds whereas Kim would've had a problem mustering up the drive to kill in that time. Another difference is her style of standing: her usual shift, office posture is replaced with a wild one that's all over the place. She jumped at Olvida and crashed her zanpakuto into the Arrancar's. The grin on her face is sick and twisted, something I'd associate with a psychopath's and her blue eyes seem to have dulled significantly. Seeing the first clash is going no where personality number 2 pushes her blade up and snap kicks Olvida in the gut, not even pausing as she uppercuts the doubled over Arrancar's face. While Olvida is staring at the sky, #2 brings her zanpakuto down on her shoulder and slides it down to the waist, blood erupting along the trail of the blade. Olvida staggers back a bit, apparently surprised at the events, but quickly regains her composure. Just as quickly as my arm grew back, the cut disappeared.

"Tsh! Damn Hollow healing ability." I now find Kim's voice has gone from Dokuro-chan nice to Dark Bulleta (or B.B. Hood, whichever name you prefer) sounding. "Oy! Black kid!" she calls. I get a little pissed at her tone of voice.

"The name's Montage! I'd think you'd know that!" I yell back

"With D.I.D., sometimes the personalities are completely separate from each other, one not knowing what the other did." Destiny explains in my ear. Well that explains that.

"Montage, whatever. Just get your ass in gear and get over here. This seems to be your battle after all." I shunpo over to her and she gives me the "I could do better" eye roll. All of a sudden this isn't a battle with my mom, now it's a competition to see who's better. And I intend to win. #2 makes the first move and attempts to backhand Olvida, who raises her zanpakuto to stop the attack before it completes. #2 twists around to turn it into an upside down kick and I sweep the Arrancar from below. Olvida jumps and turns her body sideways to avoid my sweep and kicks up to meet #2 in the gut, sending her flying. I sheath Darius, unsheathe Mana, and take this opportunity to cut across Olvida's back and land a straight line down her spine. Wincing, she she turns and slams the hilt of her sword into my face, right in the middle of my eyes an just a little above my nose. My head hits the ground hard and I see tiny little pops before a cold feeling on my gut snaps me out and I swing Mana at it. I did a little tornado motion with my feet to trip her as I came up and kicked her still bleeding back into the air. #2 flies right over and slashes down, which Olvida quickly parries and she stabs at #2. #2 kicks the blade and I flying headbutt Olvida's spine. I always was good with working one spot. Olvida grabs us both by our necks and makes a motion to twist. But her grabbing both of us means she had to sheathe her sword, so I slashed at her shoulder. Simultaneously. #2 stabs Olvida's hand and twists her wrist in a 360 degree motion when she let go. I hear a sickly popping as the wrist breaks. Olvida's face twitches a little, but she elbows #2 in the face and aims a back kick for my nether regions. Without thought, I duck so that it catches my gut instead, which still knocks the wind out of me, but it's better than doubling over and losing grip on Mana. Still, it really pisses me off that she would go there.

"Make her writhe in pain, Mana!" I yell in my anger. "Tsurai Mana! Sainamu!" I swing the sword at Olvida and Tsurai Mana's red lining glows. Olvida then starts feeling the effect. She clutches her torso, the area I slashed, and falls to her knees while, from the look of it, barely suppresses screams even though her face is broadcasting pain. It's like Kenpachi all over again, but probably worse since I know what the hell I'm doing this time and I know the name of the move. Despite the amount of pain she must be feeling, she gets back on her feet and draws her zanpakuto. She flexes her once broken wrist and flies at me. Blindly I might add. She takes a quick stab at my center, an easy move to sidestep, so I do and bring the glowing Mana down on her sword arm. Her face distorts as fire, or so it feels, spreads through her veins, but she spins around, cutting only air. I had ducked and am about to take a swing at the place I cut her the first time, the elbow of her sword arm, multiplying the pain, but #2 apparently decides she didn't like being outdid. #2 flying kicks Olvida full in the face and flips onto my head. I have to remind myself this is Kim on my order in order to keep from swinging. Which lead me to remembers this is my mom I am fighting! I nearly drop Mana, thinking I used Sainamu on my mother.

"Oy! You goin' soft down there!?" #2 shouts in my ear. This brings me out of the thinking process and back into the game where there's just an Arrancar.

"Thanks, Kim." I absentmindedly say. I get slapped by the side of her sword in response

"Listen, boy, I'm NOT that weakling Kim! I'm Diz and you better remember it!" #2 yells. OK, so #2's name is Diz, now I can stop thinking personality #2 all the time. Diz jumps off my head and at the Arrancar. But one thing she forgot, apparently, is that Olvida was an Arrancar, not a shinigami. She raised her formerly broken wristed arm and fired an extremely quick Cero blast. It caught Diz full in the face and she started spiraling to the ground.

"That's the power of Bala, bitch!" Olvida shouts.

"Not much, huh?" Diz retorts, flipping up with a new zanpakuto. It is a foot wide and about 3''2'. The blade of the sword looks old and has loads of strangely organized looking cracks on it while the hilt's blood red and looks like it's flowing. "I've been waiting for this thing to get finished adjusting!" she declares. It takes a second for me to get this. Does that mean her soul changes when her personality does or that the zanpakuto has split personality too? Either way it does matter now. Diz charges at Olvida and cuts the hand blasting the Cero. Her zanpakuto immediately starts drawing blood from the wound and it starts filling the cracks on the sword. It fills only about 1/20 from that tiny cut, but it gives me the feeling that the cracks completely filling can't be good for anyone. So I get off my lazy ass and practically flying kick the Arrancar in the gut. I pursue the flying body and carve up the same place I did the first time: The elbow of her sword arm. Now there is an X-pattern there and the pain multiplies. By how much, I don't know seeing as I've only cut myself on Mana once. After that I made "Special Precautions" against that ever happening again ( Like only carrying her when I need her). In any case, I see her arm release her blade involuntarily and she immediately re-clutches it. I don't think her arm can survive another. Apparently so does she. I see a Gargantuan appear behind her and make to stop Olvida from entering. Unfortunately Diz, the moron, shoulders charges the Arrancar right into the damn thing.

"Kazumi Montage, I will have your head!" Olvida says as the Gargantuan closes behind her.


	16. Bring Kim Back!

Chapter 16: Bring Kim Back!

Unfortunately, that was just the end of one problem.

"Good! Now we can go head-to-head!" Diz grins at me with the psychopath's smile and carefully blank eyes.

"OK, that's enough!" Destiny shouts, grabbing Diz's arms and pinning them behind her. "Now bring Kim back now!"

"No can do, bitch. I've gotta beat that guy first." Diz kicks Destiny in the gut, but Destiny merely transfers both wrists to one hand and grabs the foot after contact. Diz gets lower and brings her other foot right up to Destiny's face, causing her to let go and she stumbles back and grabs her nose. Diz then swings her zanpakuto at Destiny, but Tsurai Mana is there to meet it. I throw my sword to intercept hers and run to the other side, catching Mana and pulled, tightening the chain that has now fully encircles Diz.

"You gonna cooperate anytime soon?" I ask, plastering one of Unohana-taicho's smiles onto my face. Diz gets very wide eyed for a second, but composes herself and spits right under my eye. I guess I still needed to work on Silent Torture. In any case, I feel the smile disappear and it's replacement iron stare. "Well, being the shit outta you works too!" I ax kick the top of her head, sending her shooting down through the chain and wipe the spit off my face. I REALLY don't want to damage Kim's body, but Diz isn't giving me much of a choice right now. "Oto: Danki Ichi! Toone!" My command makes the black screaming face on Tsurai Mana open and close it's mouth.

"Destiny, get out of the fetal position and cover your ears!" I command. She complies and Diz, picking up on the tip, attempts to cover her own. But that requires her to sheath her zanpakuto, leaving her wide open for Mana. I attempt to cut across her torso, but she backs away and draws her zanpakuto, probably completely forgetting why she sheathed it in the first place. I swing again, this time nowhere near Diz, and threw a little reiatsu into the face. The sound that Tsurai Mana creates leaves Diz swaying in place, stunned. I wouldn't know what it sounds like since I can't hear it due to me holding it. All I have are countless assurances from Unohana-taicho that I don't ever want to hear it. Back to the present, I take advantage of this, shunpoing right in front of her face and pushing the bottom of the hilt into her chin. She goes flying upward and I go up and do an upside down kick to the top of her head so hard that she went crashing into the ground. I touch ground for the first time for a long time and inspect the crater from the top, careful not to lower my guard. I seriously hope I didn't injure Kim's body too much or Destiny will never let me hear the end of it. Speaking of her, she drags herself back out of the fetal position and the horrible trance she seemed stuck in and walks over to the crater, to check on Kim/Diz I assume. She's not even there 3 seconds when a sword pierces her middle. Her eyes go wide and she coughs up blood. Compared to the amount the sword was pulling, though, that cough was atomic. The owner of the blade rises out of the crater and assumes her maniac grin.

"Aka Ketsuki has now arrived!" she happily declares. Her zanpakuto is now completely red with little steel lines branching off the base of the zanpakuto in every direction. It;s now more like a 4'5'' Type 95 shingunto with a blood flow-like hilt (the blood is now actually flowing onto her hand and wrapping around it), and strings sickeningly similar to muscle tendons hang off the bottom of the hilt.

"Idiot!" she mocks Destiny as she withdraws her zanpakuto. "If you're weak, stay out of the fight 'til the enemy's dead." she kicks Destiny to the ground. "Right, Montage?" She turns to face me and recoils. I don't know the look of my own face, but I hope it's every bit as demonic as I want it to be. I stop caring whether this is Kim's body and cut loose, letting my reiatsu spike as much as possible to cause her to farther recoil. I'm gripping Mana so tight that my hand is actually bleeding right now.

"You need to take your own advice." I say lowly, almost whispering. She laughs.

"I'm not..." Is as far as she gets before I slam my fist into her face. She skids back by a lot, me chasing her the entire way. When she stops, she yells, "Ryuuketsu!", and swings her zanpakuto, releasing a bloody wave in my direction. Just to show her how weak she is, I don't dodge, I make one slash with Mana and the thing splits clean in half. Before she even has time to do anything else, I'm in front of her and yelling, "Sainamu" causing a deep red half-X to appear across her chest. She jumps back afterwards and clutches her chest. I rush over and kick her across the face, slam my fist into her back, and use the bottom of the zanpakuto to crash her head into the ground. She uses the bounce my strike caused to flip around and ax-kick me on the top of my head, causing me to look down. I see her foot comin' and take a stab at it with Mana, unfortunately she sees it and backs away.

"OK then, Shuurajou!" She yells. Her zanpakuto glows an even deeper shade of red and she completely disappears on me, to the point where I can't even find her reiatsu.

_**"Right!"**_ Darius calls and I block an upcoming blade from nowhere with Mana. Suddenly the blade's gone again.

_**"Up!"**_ Shea yells and I step forward. Now I can actually see Diz briefly before she disappears again. This time I'm followin' her movements perfectly since my eyes have now fully adjusted, but it seems unfair to have Trel be the only one not to help me.

_**"Backhand!"**_ He commands and I backhand as commanded. It was better than my original intention. She flies back a little, but goes right back on the offense. My right again, Mana shoots up. To my left, I aim a side kick at her center and connect. She starts to gain a little speed, but that speed comes at the cost of releasing whatever seal was blocking her reiatsu from me. I don't even have to look to follow her anymore. She tries to come out of the ground, so I jump and aim a roundhouse at her face. She backs up a little so I miss and, worse, am taken off balance. She uses this one second disbalance to her advantage. I feel her blade enter my waist from the left side, so I grab it. She instantly freezes and tries to pry her zanpakuto from my left hand. She makes the mistake of looking into my eyes tryin' to find mercy, but all she gets is blood lust very similar to hers a bit earlier.

"Sekkaku." I say as I prepare to strike. It's maybe 2 inches from her wrist when Destiny grabs my arm and Mana freezes me and reverts to normal.

"**Did you forget who's still in there!?"** They both yell at me, Destiny surprising me with the volume she can yell considering she couldn't have fixed up her internal organs that well yet even if she's closed the gaping hole in her gut. I have to admit, I had completely forgotten and just sit there is shock. Unfortunately, my body starts feeling the pain I suffered in both battles, most recently Diz's zanpakuto entering and staying in my side. My body's under a huge strain due to the amount of work it's been doing and my eyes are throbbing due to overworking when I had to track Diz. I trade the hopefully still murderous look on my face for another Unohana-taicho smile.

"Would you return Kim to us now?" Diz knows there only one acceptable response and I allow her to remove her zanpakuto from my side. With it free, I see the blood lust return to her eyes and summon Darius' zanpakuto from my soul. She takes a swing for my neck, but I draw Darius, slash the zanpakuto outta her hand and slap her with the side of the blade. "I will NOT ask again." I state, Unohana-taicho smile still plastered to my face.

"No choice, huh?" Diz moans. Her whole figure drops as she absorbs defeat. She takes a deep breath and stares me down. I think she's getting ready to go for her zanpakuto, which landed about 20 feet behind me, so I shake my wrist free of Destiny and get ready to outrun her as best I can with a split side. I'm completely taken off guard when she steals a kiss instead.

"What the FUCK!?" Both me and Destiny yell.

"What? I love a strong man." She passes out soon after.

"Kim will be back when she wakes up." Destiny says. I'm not paying too much attention though. I'm still stuck on the kiss. What the fuck!? WHY!?

"This truly is the most jacked up family ever." I mutter, shaking my head and pinching the bridge of my nose. "There's no parents, one carries his old family around with him, one sleeps in the nude in the middle of a crowded room, another can barely croak out the name of the family carrier, and the newest addition's already thinkin' of incest. This truly is the most jacked up family."

_**"Wow...just...wow."**_ Shea mutters.

_**"Hands down."**_ Darius agrees

_**"Seriously! Shea never made a move on any of us."**_ Trel comments.

_**" I honestly don't know what to say." **_Mana says.

_**" Well that's a first." **_all my siblings and me say

_**"Oh shut up!"**_

_**"Awww, she's blushing." **_ Shea laughs.

_**"Hanging around you guys must've made me soft..." **_Mana sighs

_**"If anything, hanging around Shea should've made you harder."**_ I retort, laughing at the entire convo.

_**"If I ever get into the Material World, I'm gonna kill you, Tage!"**_ At that, I turn my attention back to the Material World.

"Uh, Destiny, could you carry Kim back home? In case you didn't notice, my arms are kinda dead." It's true, I can barely lift my arms high enough to touch my side and have all the grip of a newborn baby.

"Sure, just as long as you drop the reiatsu." I knew I forgot something. To be honest I'm surprised there's anything left of it, I feel completely drained. I drop it so that Destiny can stand straight and we prepare to shunpo when I find out my legs are made of jelly. I didn't want Destiny to worry about it, so I pushed myself 175% in order to keep normal pace.


	17. Dive Into the Past

Chapter 17: Dive into the Past

The next 2 are purely character development chapters, so I'll post 3 chapters almost back-to-back when I post this one so you can skip it if you want

As soon as we get home I collapse onto the surface of my mattress and start relaxing my overly tense body. Destiny lays Kim across her bed and tucks her in like a little child, then goes to sit on her mattress a ways away from me. We sit in complete silence, completely awake the way I'm seeing it, me still doing my relaxation routine and gathering some pathetic reiatsu I can to repair Diz's wound to my waist since that was the biggest one I sustained. I'm just glad it didn't hit the spine or I'd probably be a vegetable 'til someone more skilled in the division got down here and repaired my spine. I look around the room, done with the relaxation routine, having nothing better to do. It's 1 in the morning, no big deal.

"Man, this is gonna be one helluva report I've gotta turn in." I say, just to break the ice.

_**"Montage, I think she's got something on her mind."**_ Darius says.

_**"I agree. She was incapacitated the entire fight."**_ Mana adds.

_**"Find a gentle way to bring it up." **_Shea suggests.

"Hey, Destiny, there somethin' on your mind?" I ask

_**"So much for gentle."**_

"Sorry, Kazumi-san," Destiny starts and I immediately know it's bad since she's using honorifics, "I was useless in today's battles because I kept seeing pieces of my human life."

"Aren't you supposed to forget your human life when you die and go to the Soul Society?"

"Yes, you are. That's why I don't get this! Why the hell am I still seeing me as a kid when I'm not supposed to!?" she starts flaring up. "I didn't have these stupid things 'til..." she stops and fixes me with a cold stare. I immediately know what's gonna come next and brace myself. " 'Til you showed up. This is all your fault!!" She jumps off her bed and starts slapping me across the face. With how weak I am right now, each slap feels like Olvida slammed my head into the Earth again, but I manage to hold my ground. 'Sides, it'd be better to get the hostility out of the way now instead of letting it build. After a minute, she starts slowin' up.

"Feel better now? More rational?" I ask. "'Cause you know I wouldn't do anything to hurt those important to me. On purpose anyway. I mean, my clumsiness has hurt more than one person." I joke, tryin' to lift the mood. I fails epically.

"Sorry, Kazumi-san..." I shoot her a death glare at my formal title, but she completely ignores it, "But I don't like what I'm seeing, partially because I can't see past the age of 8. What I see tears me apart."

"Maybe telling someone else with a less than happy childhood'll put you back together." She opens her mouth. "And before you object, this is an order."

"Fine. Starting at age 4, my mother started seeing me as little more than a pain in the ass. Sure, she liked the whole baby scene: The headaches. The diapers, the living dress up doll, the stuff you see on TV. For some reason, or another she got tired of it by that age. My dad was a work-a-holic working the 9 to 5, the 5 to 9, and the 9 to were filthy rich because of it, but I only had a dad four hours each day and he spent it sleeping for the most part. While he was gone, Mom would invite different men into the house and tell me to go play outside for an hour or two. At 5 years old, I walked in after 10 minutes had passed by and got a crash course in sex."

I couldn't help but cringe a little. Who wants to see their mom "working" She continues without noticing though, almost like she was in a trance.

"After that, she started paying me to stay away. Pft, like I needed it. Turns out Dad was no better. During a 'Bring your Daughter to Work Day' I found out his second 9 to 5 wasn't entirely filled with work. At about 2 AM, he'd get off. At this point he tried to drop me off, but, me being a curious little girl, wanted to see what he did with those 3 hours so I hid in his trunk and held it slightly open. He does faster than I'd ever seen anyone drive. Within 15 minutes, we were there on the complete other side of the city. There was the red light district. I played Ninja and followed him to a brothel. Once there, some...freak thought I was part of the place and drags me to the counter and asks how much I'm worth. The lady sees me struggling and says I'm not with them. I thought it was over, but then he started doubling his prices, When he hits (the equivalent of) 100,000 (U.S. Dollars), she gave him the keys to a room and gave me a pitying look as I was dragged away kicking, screaming and biting. He picks me up and throws me onto the bed and I start screaming as he draws closer. The pedo actually got off on that and encouraged me to scream louder and more shrill. He's on top of me, ripping off my shirt when Dad kicks in the room door."

I breathe a sigh of relief, so frickin' glad that story didn't go left.

"Apparently the lady up front couldn't bear the guilt, so she kicked in every door 'til she saw Dad. He throws me into the car and starts yelling about how I, in his exact words, 'Am too damn curious. Stupid bitch, fucking ruining my good time.' It tore me apart to hear him say that. My own father thinking I was a waste of space. Screw worrying about his only daughter, no, he's too fuckin' worried about getting' his dick sucked!!"

I cut her off at this point since she looks ready to kill someone and I'm the only one in the room. I try making some tea with loads of honey loaded in (I heard somewhere that has a calming effect). It works, to my surprise! She's not tranquil, but she's not gonna slit my throat either. I keep a giant pot sitting on a rag on a dresser I dragged between us.

"Thanks. We come home to find Mom with another one of her men. My dad goes into this fury I have no idea about he's he actually pays for the same thing. They start yelling and when I try to leave, Dad yells, "No you don't! I'm not done with you!'. Mom starts demanding him to tell her what I did, grabbing me and protectively hugging me. He gives this feeble excuse about me acting up in front of his employers. Mom sees it's bullshit so she asks me. I tell her about my experience in the red light and his exact words afterwards. Now she's pissed and yelling at the top of her voice how he put my virginity in danger at such a young age. He apathetically states there are girls my age gettin' laid at that moment. So now I find out I'm another fuckin' statistic for the bastard! And mom's just as pissed as I am now, maybe even more so. She's screaming again about how her shit would be a better parent than him and he yells she's no better. What if one of her 'fuck buddies', as he put it, went after me. Me liking Mom better at the moment, I comment on how Mom always makes sure they're gone before I come back. And then he slaps me. Hard." She starts tearing up. I REALLY don't feel like pushing her off the edge, so I motion that she can stop at any time. She shakes me off, pulls herself together and trudges on.

"I hit the floor and start crying. Mom kicks Dad across and face and into a wall. He punches her, she punches him and all of a sudden it's a brawl with me on the floor right next to them. I felt my heart tug in two: I wanted payback for my time in red light, but I didn't like my parents fighting at all. Literally just made it worse. I repeatedly tried to get between them but I was knocked back and bruised every time. I tried crying louder, but they didn't pay any attention. It all ended when Mom pressed her advantage as a woman and kicked him in the balls. She grabbed my hand, not bothering to notice how bruised I was, pulled me out of the house, and slammed the door. A few days later, they got a divorce and I only got to see Dad on the weekends and that only happened a year after the divorce. The court heard about the red light incident and wouldn't let me see him at all. Only after 3 months of crying and pleading with Mom did she appeal to the court for weekends. Then the war began."


	18. Dive Into the Past pt 2

Chapter 18: Dive into the Past (pt.2)

"Then the war began." Destiny half-whispers. I don't like the sound of a war. The way she said it makes me think she was caught in it.

"It was a silent war where the only weapon was persuasion. But to a 7 year old girl who practically lived without a parent's love, it's enough. They both couldn't stand the thought of sharing me apparently. They both wanted permanent custody, but the judge left the decision up to me. Mom would cook my favorite meals so much I got sick of them, but I didn't let her know that. I just kept on eating the stuff and held it in until I got to a bathroom and make sure Mom was no where near it. She'd also spend every cent she make off her secretary job on me, meaning most times the electricity got cut off, making me feel guilty. Again, I didn't let her know. Dad was just as bad, except he had more money, kept his old routine, so therefore had a lot less time for me. But it was still somewhat better than Mom since he was being real. Since he had no time, hired a girl my age named Tatimi to go with me to wherever I wanted to go. Sure, she was nice enough, but she wasn't a real friend. She was just someone paid to smile, make me laugh, and pick out the best places to eat and shop. I wasn't really remorseful when she got shot in a hold up one day. Mom tried using that as leverage to get me to stay away from Dad but, since I felt nothing for her, it didn't work. Dad just shrugged and got me a new girl named Saku and a "secret" bodyguard who's just about as secret as you when you're pissed."

To be honest I'm really pissed with her pathetic excuses for parents, but I manage to keep my reiatsu and face calm

"Yes, I was showered with stuff, but what about love? I got none from either parent. I felt like a bullet that they both used to shoot at the other whenever they pleased. I was actually excited when I went to school since I had real friends and real laughs. Saku happened to go there and was a completely different girl off the payroll. On it, she was the pompous, straight-faced girl who only opened her mouth to point out somewhere good to go. Of it, she was the type of tomboy I emulate to this very day: boarding, hawking into people's food and laughing when they took a bite, TPing the entire school, and, my favorite, driving the teachers up the wall by making this low groan just on the edge of their hearing. The first couple of times, they'd think it was the wind. Then after a while they either broke down and excused themselves or started picking out students to punish. Her moan was unisex, something she achieved after years of practice according to her, so mostly trouble making guys got picked, but never me or Saku. We were 'the good little girls'." she stops to laugh her ass off. I think she got Contagious Laugh she I was pulled in right along when her. If she was anything then like what she is now, good is NOT the word I'd use for her. As her laughing stops, a morose look takes its place.

"Then it all ended. Mom apparently couldn't stand the thought of being away from me longer anymore so I was withdrawn from the school. I complained about it for months, but she didn't pay it any mind. The only time I saw Saku was when I when to Dad's house, so I started getting more excited to go there. Mom saw this and flipped out. I was no longer showered with stuff and was beat constantly to instill fear. It did. The fear of staying her her. I called the police and had her arrested for child abuse and immediately packed my stuff and when to Dad. I think things were OK for about 2 weeks. Then Dad started inviting his friends into the house for these wild parties that he didn't care enough to keep me from. He had more than a few pedophiles for friends and I couldn't defend myself from them all. Need I say more?"

At this point, I'm gripping the mattress as hard as I can, gritting my teeth so hard it feels like they're gonna break. I'm just barely suppressing my reiatsu, my murderous intent, and the murderous face that would've come with it. I'm so glad I don't know where the man calling himself her father's soul is or I would kill it as soon as we got back to Soul Society. It's also a good thing she seems so trapped in her memories that she doesn't notice any of this.

"One day, the man I escaped in the red light almost 3 years before showed up. He recognized me as soon as I recognized him. I had grown a little curve so I was that much more appealing to him to him now. I thought to call Mom, but I remembered she was still in jail. Then I remembered her last words to me. 'Have fun with your Dad you fuckin' whore!'. Did that mean Dad was whoring me out and Mom knew? No way, I thought, even Dad's not that bad. But the idea suck with me and I started to cry thinking about it. My cry turned the pedo on and he started trying to lead me to my room. His touch repulsed me so much that I was brought out of my thinking and the self defense classes Mom made me take after the red light incident took over. I wanted to try all the cool punches and kicks and elbows I had learned in there, but my body only followed one of my commands. A swift tee kick between the legs." My hands fly to my nads. If she was anywhere near as strong then as she is today...

"I felt his testicles break." Oooh! Those were the words I was looking for.

"He released one of those little squeaky screams that no one who isn't paying attention hears. Then he talks in that same voice, but it's all I can hear. 'This isn't part of the deal. I paid good money for you!'. So it was true. Dad turned me into a whore, literally since he was accepting money for it. My body when on autopilot as one thought when through my mind. I had to get out of there and run far away. I grab the one bag I hadn't unpacked yet filled with workout clothes and ran out the door, Dad too drunk to notice. I remember it becoming cold and I remember wondering the streets for months, developing a sense on how to steal without getting caught by using my age, how to pick a lock, where I could sleep without getting raped again, that sorta thing. My last memory of then is a gunshot and me staring at my body as blood pours out of the hole in my head. On thing lead to another and here I am now, 93 years later." she concludes.

I'm in a complete state of shock: At 8 years old, Destiny died. I'm in a state of fury: How can those people call themselves her parents and how could the man calling himself her father do that to her!? I'm in a state of pity: I lived a better, longer life than she did and I only technically I only lived to be 12. I shunpo the distance between as, feeling like I'm forgetting something, and wrap her in an tight hug while she cries into my shoulder. It's 4:30 in the morning when she cries herself to sleep and my clothes are now soaked on top of being bloodstained. I barely manage to shift her comfortably onto her bed and take a more through look at myself. I'm still bleeding a little from my various injuries and I've managed to tear my waist open.

_**"Yeah, I've been blocking blood for a while."**_ Mana claims. _**"You may wanna see someone about that.**_" Without even thinking about it, I muster up what little reiatsu I have left and shunpo to the Kurosaki clinic


	19. Reunion

Chapter 19: Reunion

I think I'm on Death's Door again for the third time in a relatively short time when I arrive.

"Oy! Doctor Kurosaki!? You in?" I yell at the house. My answer come in the form of a man flying from a higher floor in a drop kick position. Despite my injuries, I step the easily predictable blow and he craters into the ground. I sigh and shake my head. "Long time no see, Doctor Kurosaki." He opens his mouth to answer.

"Hey! Who's makin' all the noise!?" a woman yells from the door. For a second, I think Kurosaki's gone and got himself a new wife, but from the way she shakes her head after seeing Isshin in the ground seems familiar to me. I don't remember the body, but the face and attitude are enough to jog my memory. She's Isshin's daughter. Let's see, I've been through this before. It's not Kim, but it starts with a K. Kari? Kammy?

"Karin-chan, Montage is back." Isshin says from his pit. How come I can't remember her name!? In any case, it's now definite who this is. It looks like a curvier, more toned version of the Karin I remember, but this raises a question.

"Hey, Karin, it's been about 20 years since I was here, so why are you still livin' with your dad?" Quest item found: A roundhouse to the face. I musta been searching for that with that sorta question.

"For your info, I don't live here! Some crazy black shinigami and a female humanoid Hollow Dad calls an Arrancar tore down my house." she yells at my near unconscious figure in the ground. As my brain starts processing this, I find myself wide awake. What are the chances of another black shinigami fighting a female Arrancar? Answer: Near zero. And apparently she starts putting that together.

"How did you get injured this time?" she asks suspiciously.

"Um, fighting a female Arrancar."

She goes brick red and starts releasing mountain ranges of murderous intent. "You!" she growls. "You better have a damn good explanation for this. You know what? Fuck the explanation! I'll kick your face in instead. And with how weak I was at the moment, I couldn't stop her.

"You gotta understand, that was my mom I was fighting!" I blurt. Her foot stops less than an inch from my face and I stop breathing so I don't smell shoe. Her foot retracts slowly before finally replacing itself on the ground. My vision's swimming and I feel woozy.

"What?" I open my mouth to answer, but my vision goes under and I lose consciousness. I wake up and roll to the side. The overhead clock says It's now 10 in the morning. I feel like I've been here before and see that this is the same exact bed I used all the time when I was alive.

"SAFE!" Isshin yells, making the catchers motion along with it. Karin face palms and sighs. I'm tempted to do the same, but my arms still feel like lead. Then she turns her attention to me and I become all too aware of all the sharp objects int the room, my zanpakuto included. She fixes her gaze elsewhere and kicks at the ground.

"So what were you saying before you conked out?"

"The Arrancar I was fighting was my mom. She's also responsible for the events 20 years ago." Both me and her are lookin' like we're drownin' in something.

"It's been 20 years, huh? It's amazing how much less I've had to spend on medical supplies since you've been gone." Isshin cracks, lightening the mood considerably. I guess the dumb look on his face while he said it helped.

"I know! His family alone've kept this clinic running for this long!" Karin adds, laughing loudly.

"I don't plan on becoming a regular here again." I say, barely restraining both laughter and malice.

"Since when did you plan on becoming a regular? Karin points out. I stay silent since she does have a point. The two of them continue to laugh at me and my family's expense while my family is plotting all the things they could do in retaliation.

_**"Wreck the clinic!"**_ Shea votes

_**" Nah, wreck them!" **_Darius says

_**" Attack both!"**_ Trel declares

_**"Boy am I glad you haven't achieved bankai yet."**_ Mana sighs. _**"With these guys running around the Material World, it would be hell on earth."**_

"So, Goat, where're we supposed to get another shinigami uniform?" Karin asks. I completely forgot I was in this form, that's now used I am to being here.

"I don't have any spares, but we could wash them." Karin gets an evil glare in her eye, like she found a new, extremely breakable toy.

"Don't even think about it." I say, trying to stand up. Unfortunately my legs protest and I collapse.

"Now, now, it'll be that much longer 'til you get out of here if you fight." An evil grin now accompanies the evil eyes.

"Good luck, Montage!" Isshin yells as he runs from the room, laughing all the way.

"BASTARD! Woah!" I cry as my kimono goes missing. Karin is holding it in her hands and her eyes are frickin' creeping me out. I see a lust in there, but I don't know what since it's not blood lust.

_**"Idiot. Blood lust isn't the only kind of lust." **_Shea sighs

_**"Yeah. There's lust of the body too."**_ Mana adds. I can almost picture the grin on her face as she says it.

"N...N...Now wait a second." I stutter while using my arms to back away. She starts advancing, I start hyper venting. It's at this point I hear it. It's a sound that makes me feel foolish, relieved, and pissed all at the same time. That sound is Goat laughing his ass off. When she sees I know it's a joke, Karin starts breaking down with laughter and clutching her ribs. For the first few seconds, I'm relieved it's over, then I feel stupid for not realizing this was a joke at the beginning, then I feel like wrapping my hands around their throats. Apparently Shea and Mana were clued in to the joke since they're busting a gut too.

_**"What the hell was that about?"**_ Trel asks. I sigh. He was always the slow one.

_**"In one word: Punk'd."**_ Shea breathes through her uncontrollable mirth. I now feel like setting a thunderstorm in my soul, but since Trel and Dare would get caught in it, I don't.

"Oh man! You should've seen your face!" Karin laughs, bringing me back to the MW. "Goat, please tell me you got that!"

"100% of it!" He pants as he enters the room, holding a digital camera. I grab Trel and throw him, connecting with the camera. Now it's my turn to laugh at Goat's face as the camera crumbles. I sit there, dying of laughter when something finally clicks.

"So what ARE we gonna do about my clothes?" I ask reluctantly.

"Montage, you're clothes are already changed." I look down and see my hakami and the kimono clutched in Karin's hands are completely black. I yank my shirt back and wince. It looks like my waist has reopened. Fortunately, Goat also notices this.

"Dammit! My apologies!" He says as he practically throws me back on the bed.

I throw on a strained smile and say, "Don't ever apologize to me again. Can you count how many times we've shown up here on Death's Door?" Goat looks into the air and starts messing with his fingers. "Didn't think so. One more trip ain't gonna kill me."

"Actually it could. That's kinda what Death's Door is." Karin retorts.

_**"She's got a point you know." **_Darius says. _**"And we don't know what happens to us if you die, so..."**_

_**"DON'T DIE, DIPSHIT!!!"**_ Shea blasts in my ears. They are now ringing and in the MW I cringe and cover my ears.

" Turn the volume down, Shea! Are ya tryin' to blow my ears out?" I say in my head. Or at least I think so. Apparently not since Karin and Goat are staring at me like I'm a psychopath. "What!?"

"I know it's a painful experience to fight your mom, but the doesn't mean you can flip out and start talkin' to dead siblings." Karin coaxes

"Oh, they're not dead, they're my zanpakutos." I reply without thinking. A really bad move in hindsight. Now they're looking at me like I've grown three heads.

"You're kidding, right?" Goat says. I sigh. Looks like I've gotta drag my ass outta bed and give them a demonstration. I firmly, well as firmly as I can, plant my feet on the ground and draw Shea in my right hand and Darius and Trel in my left.

"Nope. Now watch carefully cuz I don't think I can do it again right now."

"Break them down, Shea! Run through them, Darius! Hide me well, Trel!" I gain black, fingerless gloves, the tsurugi turns into a dual-edged bokken, and Trel sheathes himself. Calling upon my last dredges of energy, and consciousness I poke the ground to create a hole 2 feet big and a foot deep. Then I shunpo behind them using Darius' speed and watch as they try to find me through Trel's cloaking. Unfortunately, my body hitting the floor is a dead giveaway. "See? I say as I slip back outta consciousness.


	20. Back to Work

Chapter 20: Back to Work

I woke up a while later, but not cuz I want to. It's because someone has jumped onto my chest which disturbs my injuries, which are much better by this time, and I snap awake. I immediately notice it's night now.

"Kazumi-san! We were looking everywhere for you." Kim declares. I muster up as a best a death glare as I can with someone sitting on my chest.

"Kazumi-san?" Karin asks incredulously. She looks about 3 seconds from dissolving into laughter. "To me, you'll always be Montage, #1 patient."

"Gee, thanks." I retort, sarcasm running like a river.

"So you know her?" Kim asks, head tilted to the side.

"How could I not? I've been over here so many times it'd be strange if I didn't." I reply. At the look of embarrassment on Kim's face, I assume her mind's in the gutter right now. "This is Kurosaki Karin, daughter of the doctor of this clinic." I clarify, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose.

"Oooh!" she sighs.

"As fun as it is supporting weight on closed wounds, could you please get off?" she jumps off, a blush barely visible. She bows an apology and I wave her off. I was never into the formal stuff. I push off the covers with arms that feel almost normal and put my feet on the floor. " In any case, where's Destiny? You said you were both looking for me."

"Right! Destiny when to look on the other side of town." she whips out her cell. "Better call her over.

"No need." Destiny pants from the door. "I felt Tage's faint reiatsu a little while ago. Did you know there was a weird guard out front? I had to kick his ass to get in."

"Guard? I ask. My head makes microwave sounds as the words cook in my head. **Ding. **I burst into laughter. Karin eyes me weird, but she catches on soon enough and is on the floor laughing. We were like that a while while Kim and Destiny were completely out of the loop. "That's...No...Guard." I pant after laughing. "That's...the doctor... of the clinic...Kurosaki Isshin."

"Oh shit." Destiny moans. "I knocked out a doctor!?"

"Yeah, but he probably had it comin'." Karin says.

"Who's this?"

"Kurosaki Karin, helper in the clinic and I guess you could say long-time nurse to Montage. He used to come in here practically every other weekend. If he was lucky."

"But isn't the doctor your father?" Kim asks.

"And that's exactly why I can say he probably deserved it." I nod my head and remember being woken up in the morning by either an attack on my family or an attack on his by him. There was one time when Yuzu surprised us by retaliating so harshly he broke through the floor of the second floor. My family and I slipped out after that. We didn't want to pay off out stay by fixing the ceiling as the Kurosaki's would have in mind if they saw us.

"Well, he did come at me with his hands open." Destiny shivers as she thinks about it. Karin runs out of the room and shortly after we hear a sharp thud, most likely caused by Karin attacking Goat.

"PERVERT!" We hear as there are more thuds.

"We're going now." I say to Kim and Destiny while making a move for the door. "More than likely they'll have me paying off this trip by playing Doc to Goat. I cross the door and slip in a puddle of red. I take one look at Goat and see the full extent of Karin's wrath. His face is bruised and swollen, he's bleeding from the hip and his left leg is twisted at an unnatural angle. And Karin looks like she's got more to vent.

"You!" She turns on me and the knowledge that she's homeless thanks to me comes rushing back. "What 'cha gonna do about my housing problem!?"

"Problem?" Kim asks.

"That sounds like it's not our problem." Destiny bluntly says.

"Well, it sorta is." I say, scratching the back of my head.

"Why? They both say.

"Well, during the fight with Olvida, her house kinda got totaled." I give a shaky laugh and continue to scratch my head

"Total!? You fuckin' brought it to the ground. I just barely escaped!"

"Well, the way I see it, there's 2 options:" Destiny says, "Leave her ass right here and let insurance deal with it..."

"Not an option. She knows where I live and know to dismantle it."

"Well, option 2 is to build a new room in the house."

"Why can't I take Shea's room? I always liked it in there." I don't doubt that. After all, it's filled with sports trophies, soccer balls, boxing gloves, gauze, that sorta thing. Exactly the kinda thing one violent tomboy would like since it was set up by a violent tomboy.

_**"Shut up."**_ Shea says as I think it.

"It's taken." Destiny says.

"It is?" I say

"While you were out, we took the liberty of moving stuff to the rooms since the floor's repaired. I got Shea's room, Kim got Darius I'm assuming, and I think we put your stuff in your old room."

"Cool."

"Well, wouldn't a new room require construction workers and months of waiting?" Karin asks.

"Pft. Please, you've got 3 shinigami and you. Give it 2 weeks tops since we need to learn how to actually do some of that stuff." As we're finalizing everything, I feel something near the house and start to run for it. The others call out to see what the problem is, but when Destiny and Kim's soul pagers go off they get the memo. In seconds, they're behind me and we've set of course for the house. We reach it in 5 seconds and a sight appears that causes me to sigh. There were hundreds of Hollows surrounding out house.

"Well, time to get back to work." I say, cracking my knuckles and neck. Then I whisper to Destiny, "Please make sure Kim doesn't swap personalities on us.". She nods and we charge in. I have no plan, I just pull out Trel and Mana and get to work. The Hollows are weak and slow, barely a workout at all for me. I'm not sure about Destiny or Kim since the Hollows separate us just with with their sheer numbers. As for me, I just slash in any direction and a Hollow is cleansed or the Gates of Hell open for it. It gets to the point where they're afraid to face me and go for the girls. I respond by sheathing Mana and Trel, pulling out Darius, releasing him, and cutting them off as they ran away from me and appearing back where I began so it looks like I haven't moved at all to them. They're torn between running from me or running into an "Invisible force field". The choice is made for them though as I hear a crazy laugh.

"Sorry, Montage!" Destiny pants.

"Guess who's back!?" Diz yells and I sigh. I REALLY don't feel like dealing with her after all this blows over. "What a bunch of weaklings!" I hear her complain as a load of Hollows disappear.

"It's more fun when you restrain yourself!" I call to her. She stops complaining so I assume it works. We continue to cut through hordes of Hollows, but I just don't see the end of it all. To make matters worse, when I cut through my 100th Hollow, I start feeling Olvida's reiatsu in some Hollows. Those Hollow are craftier and refuse to go down with me only using Darius unreleased. I sheath Darius, draw Shea, and release her to shikai. Now I start punching through the weaker ones and starting brawls with the Olvida-charged ones. These brawls often ended horribly with at least one new injury showing up by the end of them due to the other Hollows swarming me and attacking during. The worse one is when I almost lose my eye. I manage to turn that into a huge gash appearing just above my eye.

"Kyuusha Shea, Kigai!" Shea then fills with my reiatsu and I release it in a single punch. The first one is a straight that takes down most of the Hollows in front of me. My second is a cross that I turn into a 360 degree spin so any within 2 foot radius of me is taken down and the end up seriously injured. I call on Kigai constantly in this fashion to keep the Hollows from surrounding me so I can punch through them. I keep this up 'til there are none left. No that is. I was now surrounded by a constant stream of and getting seriously battered because of it. I hear Destiny scream in pain and Diz grunt and I'm forced to assume they're surrounded by . I can hold my own I'm sure, but I'm not sure the other two can for much longer. I sigh and channel most of my remaining reiatsu into Shea and my feet.

_**"Please tell you're not thinkin' of..." **_Shea objects.

"Unless you see another way to ensure their safety, yes."

_**"Just make sure to get them all or you're screwed."**_

"I know." I stop a second to knock the Hollows away from me. "Satsubatsu!" I call, kicking the reiatsu in Shea and my foot to Overdrive. Then Shea takes over and launches one of her favorite combos, "The Grave". Basically I start out weak and looking like I'm flailing all over the place, only mildly hurting the , but then it gets more refined and more powerful and I'm cracking masks open left and right. It only takes a single jab or an ax-kick to split their masks now. After 2 minutes of this, my body refuses to do anymore, but at least I can see the road again through all the Hollows. This is the bad part of Satsubatsu, I never perfected it, so I don't know how to gauge it. Shea perfected it in her own body and hasn't gauged it according to mine, so when it's all said and done, I'm almost immobile. The Hollows see this and start coming at me. Fortunately I have Destiny and Diz to depend on. They rush in front of me, broken, bloody, and tired. And cut down the first Hollows that rush at me. Unfortunately there's at least 20 more to go and they're having problems at #4.

"Hold them for a second." I command and begin to slowly rise my hand in the air. I get the thing at maximum height and start channeling some of my remaining reiatsu into it. "Get into the air!" They jump and I jump right along with them. The only difference is the reiatsu in my hand blasts me back down to earth, right in the middle of the Hollows. "Wanryoko!" I cry as I slam my fist into the ground. A crater ripples across a 10 foot radius of me, trapping the Hollows within it. But it's not done yet. I release the reiatsu in my fist in the cracks of the crater and watch as it turns that tiny amount into a HUGE explosion confined to the crater. Then I look up, all Hollows are gone. I crawl out of the crater and turn onto my back, panting all the while. "How many did you get?" I call to them as they and on solid ground.

"Only about 120." Destiny says.

"HAH! I got at least 150!" Diz brags.

"That's cuz you almost hit me and I had to frickin' duck! I honestly think you were tryin' to collect my blood again for you shikai."

"Now why would I do that against such weak opponents?"

"Cuz you like blood."

"She didn't need your blood, she's got enough flowing off her right now to fill that zanpakuto a couple times over." I joke. It's partially true though. Diz had a huge cut across her chest, her face is riddled with red lines, and blood is flowing freely from her legs. Not like me or Destiny were much better. Destiny's kimono is practically just a strip of cloth on her shoulder with some bandages barely intact covering her breast. And I do mean barely, it was only enough to cover both after she moved some cloth from her stomach to that area. Her left arm looks almost dead and she tenderly stands on her right foot. At least she can stand though.

" Oh yeah? Then how did you make out, Tage?" Diz responds

"Hmm. I lost count when I passed the 200 mark.

"Dammit! Lost again." she claims even though she's got a smile on her face.

"Are you okay, Tage?" Destiny asks, probably seeing my muscles throb uncontrollably

"I'll be fine after a day, or a week of rest. Satsubatsu is not a fun move."

"It looked fun." Diz says

"I mean the move itself is a blast, but I could do without the after effects." I bring myself to a shaky stand and take a tentative step towards the house. It's amazing to think all this occurred not even 50 feet from the house and it wasn't destroyed. Nope, just a missing wall in the right side of the house. To be honest, I was sorta happy for the hole. "We'll begin construction as soon as I wake up." I say with as much authority as I can muster. "The wall's already knocked down, so not we just gotta build the new room, expand the living room and the third room, and close it back up."

"Speaking of which, where's our new house mate?" Diz asks as I plop onto the floor 15 minutes later. Refused to be carried, I staggered the entire way.

"Probably kicking the shit outta Goat, grabbing her stuff if she has any, or a variation of both.

"She already sounds like a bunch of fun."

"She is. Now if you'll excuse me, I need me some sleep." I walk upstairs to my room, surprised they got it right, plop on the bed, and K.O.


	21. Bankai Training Begins

Chapter 21: Bankai Training Begins

As soon as I fall asleep, Mana pulls me into my Spirit World.

"Oy, kid, we got work to do." she says

"Geez!" I whine. "Can't get no rest. Where's the others?" I had been looking around for a while now, but no one is at their usual places. Shea isn't hanging out on the roof, Darius isn't over punching the punching back, and Trel isn't hovering around Mana as per usual.

"You're wearin' 'em." I notice that, for the first time, I have all my zanpakuto, with the exception of Mana, on me while I'm in my soul.

"OK, what gives?"

"I decided that it's time you worked on bankai. And what better time now that your material body's useless for a while?"

"OK, so how are we gonna do this?"

"You've heard about he method Kurosaki Ichigo used, right?" I have to dig in my memory banks a little, but I eventually remember he used a doll that'd imitate his zanpakuto and it gave him a task to complete. I only know this cause Ichigo told me himself while I was at the clinic one time.

"Yeah, but the was in the Soul Society. In the material world."

"Doesn't matter. While you were messin' around with Urahara that first day you were here, I noticed the thing and emulated it into you soul." I arrange my face into a "You crazy?" sorta look and judging by her reaction I had got it right. " So who's first?" she says instead of yelling like I thought she would. Without thought or hesitation I pulled Shea off my back.

_**"No fair! Why her?"**_ Trel complains.

"She's the strongest. Doesn't it make sense for the strongest to reach the strongest position first?" I answer. That's a lie though. Shea and me were always the closest to one another due to our rivalry (I was second strongest and wanted to be first) and our matching love for combat of any sort. That's my reason for picking her. Darius and Trel's zanpakuto disappear and they show up in their usual positions with their bodies.

_**"Alright, Tage, stab me into the doll and let's get started." **_Shea commands. I thrust Shea into the doll's center and she and the doll disburse. When the smoke clears, Shea's standing there and lookin' ready for battle. Shea has grown up right along with me. She's not flat anymore, she's not average, but she's not Rangiku sized either. She's 5'0'' which, according to Mom's descriptions of him, is just barely shorter than Dad. She's kept her hair bottom of the neck length, though now she wears it down instead of in three pigtails. She has her usual combat attire on: a bandanna on her hair to prevent the opponent from grabbing it, a simple blue T-shirt no loose, but not tight either to increase mobility (she can't move too well if she's got something crushing her legs, knees, ankles, shoulders, elbows, or wrists), and a pair of black jeans like the shirt for the same reason, red Swisses just because it was her favorite shoe brand, and her customary black fingerless gloves. Now that I notice it, I'm wearing her gloves too.

"This should be fun." I smirk. It's been WAY too long since I spared with Shea. Let me tell ya. It makes Hollow fighting seem like child's play, at least back in the day in did.

I start with a cross for her face but she ducks it and gets an uppercut right to my shin. My head snaps up. Looks like it's still gonna be harder than Hollow fightin'. I cartwheel so it catches her in her chin and we both wheel back.

"Congrats, Tage, that really hurt." she said.

"Sorry, Shea, but that last one didn't. You can stop holding back now." That is what drives me so hard to get stronger; No matter how hard I tried, I always knew she was holding back and still won. And I'm sick of it.

"Alright!" she dashes at me and roundhouses at my head. I duck it, but was still taken off balance for a second due to ducking way too fast and the blood rushing to my head. She took that second and ax-kicked the top of my head into the ground. I bounced once and use the momentum to 360 and land an ax to her forehead to disorient her. I use her dizziness to get over my own. A kick into the ground is NOT FUN. I shake it off and sweep her feet, only to have her jump it and do a drop kick to my torso. I grab her feet after contact and slam her into the ground face first and kick her body into the air. She slides across it and shunpos at me. She must've been workin' on it in here cuz I can't follow for a second. Once I take into account her higher speed, I see her foot about an inch from my nose, much too close to do much of anything. I lean back to minimize damage, though she still got a pretty damn close to breaking my nose. While I lean, she bring both fists into my gut and I double over. Really stupid mistake as she tee-kicks my face and I begin lookin' at the sky. I use the momentum to get a really strong cartwheel to her chin and, when I get back on my feet, flying kick her gut. Now she's the idiot for doubling over. I jump on her head and position myself to slam her on the ground 20 feet below us (sorta like Sasuke did to Orochimaru and Naruto) and go down. We are about 2 inches from the ground when she does a complete 360 and I land on the back of her head. She gets off and I finish falling flat on my back. My vision's swimming, I see little pops in front of my eyes.

"Idiot." she comments and looks away as if she was expecting me to fade out. Instead I sit up, grab her leg, pick her up while picking myself up, and slam her into the ground so she makes an arch in the air and lands on the back of her head.

"You're the idiot. I've always had a hard head." I say. That is true, but not helping right now since my vision's still doing the breaststroke, but Shea's taunt at least kept me from blacking out. I'm shaking the pops out of my vision now. Shea brings herself to a shaky stand and I can see she;s in pretty much the same condition.

"Alright you two!" Mana calls. Shea turns back into a doll and her zanpakuto is on my back again. "You're done for the day. Any farther and I'm sure one of you have a concussion."

"Um, Mana..." Trel states. He doesn't get to finish on account of me slamming Mana into the ground and holding her neck.

"Mana, I don't know if any of my family told you," I growl as menacingly as possible, "But in the Kazumi family, all fights are until one side can't fight no more."

"Got it." she chokes. Darius then plies me off and hold my arms at the top of my head. At his height, which is still significantly taller than me, I'm off the floor.

"Sorry, Mana, but he's a staunch believer in that rule." he explains. "It'd be best if you let it play out 'til the end next time." Rubbing her neck, she nods and shoots me a dirty look. "And Montage," he snaps my arms a little so pain shoots through them, " I know you live and breath that rule but that's no reason to lash out at people. Calm your ass down." We sit there for who knows how long like that, my arms feeling more and more pain. Darius finally lets me go, probably because he deemed I wasn't gonna attack anyone else.

"So what do I do 'til tomorrow?" It's not like I can wake up in the MW right now." I say. I know my own body well enough and have determined it's so wrecked if the girls just leave it as it is, it'll take three days to straighten itself out and it'll reinstate consciousness. Shea disappears off my body and reappears in human form on the roof, sprawled out and snoring loudly. Mana appears on my hip.


	22. A Brief Intermission

Chapter 22: A brief intermission

_**"Ya can't use the doll right now, so we'll work on your zanjustu." **_Mana says.

"His hakuda is good enough to cover for it, isn't it?" Trel asks. What I wanna know is how the hell he heard her.

_**"He can't use hakuda in every situation."**_ I'm looking for anything strange this time and notice that Mana's talking is played throughout my soul like an intercom system. I decide this is good enough and don't give a fuck about how the system works. _**"First things first, range."**_ Mana says, breaking through my thoughts. _**" I don't have a chain in Tsurai Mana for nothin'! Use it!"**_ I release Mana and put my left hand on the chain and my right on the hilt of Mana. _**"Switch hands."**_ she commands immediately.

"And why would I do that?"

_**"You're not gonna cut anyone with me right now. Use your dominant hand to throw me better."**_ It made sense, so I throw the chain into my right hand and Mana in my left. It feels awkward, but I brush it off. I twirl Mana for a bit before tossing her in a random direction. _**"Two things wrong there: (a) Don't spin before throwing, it'll just tell the enemy what you wanna do and (b) Pick a target so you'll know you're being accurate." **_I pick the fence on the barn across the street as my target and basically whip Mana in that direction. She lands in the ground about 2 feet away from target.

"Wouldn't it make more sense to throw the blade with my right hand instead of whipping it?"

_**"THIS IS TRAINING!!" **_ she declares. _**"You're not always gonna be able to do it the sensible way. 'Sides, that's way too easy." **_I can almost see the smile on her face when she says that.

"Alright, coach." I shrug and yank the chain back. I miss the hilt a little and nick my pinky. Instantly, Mana's 'venom' circulates through the cut, causing me to lose feeling in my pinky and feel a sharp burning everywhere else.

_**"Eh, you need to get used to it anyway in case it's turned against you."**_ I clutch Mana as best I can with a worthless pinky and whip again. My grip's not as good as the first time so it barely clears the street before crashing into the the ground. Even before I start pulling her back, her "venom" injected itself into my right elbow. _**"Those are the stakes: Hit and I let up, miss or use hakuda and I hurt ya somewhere else."**_ I yank Mana back. Or at least I try to, it's pretty hard not that my elbow's gone. _**"You're not supposed to be using it anyway."**_ she says in response to my thought. I straighten my arm and yank in a crescent moon motion. This time the zanpakuto stays straight and it's easier to catch, to my surprise. When throwing it, I try flicking my wrist along with this same motion (reversed, of course). It works! I hit the bottom right corner of the fence.

_**"Don't get excited! That pathetic excuse for a toss barely hit the target. Improve on it!"**_ I repeatedly throw it after that, my aim getting to the point where 2 parts of my body didn't go numb before I hit the fence again. I notice that she only numbs parts that I'm using unnecessarily like my forearm or my left leg, so I learn from them and stop using that part, mainly because it was too much of a bother trying to use it while it was numb. After a couple of hours of this, I could always hit whatever I wanted and pull Mana back no problems.

"Are we done yet?" I ask

_**"Ya think that you'll always be throwin' at an inanimate object? Now we move on to moving targets."**_ I wait for a moving target to pop up somewhere, but after a couple of minutes I can tell it's not comin'. The only moving things in this place are Trel and Darius...I feel a mischievous smile crawl across my face. Trel's running around, so I decide to make him first target. I aim in front of him at his legs as he runs and whipped Mana towards him. He isn't paying me any attention and Mana slides right across his leg. He trips and falls on his face and starts flipping around, much to my amusement. He stops rollin' and slides to a stop on his face. I start laughing my ass off

"What's the big idea!?" he shouts from the floor.

_**"Congratulations, **_Trel. _**You've **_been _**chosen **_as _**Tage's**_/my _**target**_ practice." Me and Mana say

_**"Same stakes as the fence." **_ Mana adds before I start. Trel keeps running in one direction, so it's easy to hit him. I'm setting up and usual and throw. It's right on target, then Trel trips! I lose feeling in my left knee, but immediately get it back as I hit Trel again. I don't know how long we keep this up before I get bored. Trel was just too predictable and his dress style makes him easy to hit. He loves wearing black, to the point where if he starts wearing eye liner and a choker I'd call him a goth: I mean he has a black T-shirt on saying "I see dumb people", black jeans, and black skater shoes. All this against the beautiful, clear blue skies of my soul, he's very visible, therefore not much more of a challenge than the fence. I reel Mana back in and look at Darius.

You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" I ask Mana.

_**"Go right ahead."**_ I whip the chain, but Darius is why brighter than Trel and therefore sees my attack coming. He abandons his punching bag and gets outta the way/ My left thigh goes numb and the burn starts up in my veins, but at this point, it's like someone just turned up the heat a little.

"This should be lots more fun."

"Hope you can keep up, Montage." Darius counters. Just from his dress I can tell this is gonna be harder: he has a sky blue polo with some loose white and gray camo shorts and no shoes (he only wears shoes when he has to and I guess you don't have to in a soul). He runs straight to the left, so I throw it in front of him, but he cuts back and begins running towards me. He flying kicks me in the chest and I fall back since I'm not expecting it. The heat cranks up a little, but nothing I'm not used to and my left arm shuts down. "Think of this as a real combat situation. You miss, you're getting hit." he explains as I pick myself off the ground as best I can with basically one arm and one leg.

_**"Good idea, Darius."**_ Mana compliments._** "I wonder why didn't think of it, or running randomly, while he was the target."**_

"No offense to Montrel, but he panics easily and can't think straight afterwards." I use the dialog to pull Mana back and nick Darius in the process. The heat goes from simmer to nearly off and I can reuse my left arm. "My bad. I should've known you'd cash in on that." he backs away and starts running to the right. I aim just barely ahead of here he is and toss Mana. HE can't accelerate or Mana'll scrape across his thigh, he can't slow up or that's this torso being scraped up, and he can't stay the same or she'll plant into his thigh. I feel confident that I can't miss. Then he jumps to avoid Mana and shunpos in my direction. He aims a straight at my face, but I lean out of it to my left and retract Mana at the same time. I see Mana's going too high to hit Darius so I yank her down a little and she scrapes along his back. He arches it for a second and jumps back. The only problem is he jumps back to where Mana landed seeing as the yank made me unable to catch her. I can't pull her back because she's firmly embedded in the concrete of the street, so that means I have to go retrieve her. Unfortunately it appears Darius figured all that out a while ago, so he's standing right in between me and her. I think he forgot I am still holding the chain because his eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets as I wrap the chain around his leg and pull, causing to taste ground. I grab Mana from behind him and jump back a little. After all, this is range practice, so what's the point if there's no range? I throw Mana right under his right arm so he'd hurry up and get up. He jumps up and starts running again. I see by now that throwing in one direction isn't gonna cut it. I throw Mana the same way as last time, except when Darius is forced to jump I yank Mana up and catch him right across the leg.

"You're getting good at this." Darius says as he tries to firmly plant himself on the ground.

"Thanks." I reply and wait for him to balance out. If I don't, then it's no better than the fence. I prep Mana to throw again when he's done, but she disappears and Shea reappears on my back.

"The intermission's over." Mana declares. I know I'll be tired if I sit around long enough for my body to realize it, so I immediately stab the doll with Shea and get back to work.


	23. Almost, but Not Quite Second Day

Chapter 23:Almost, But Not Quite/Second Day

As soon as the doll is Shea, I sweep her right leg and snap kick her torso. In response, she grabs my arm and twists. I can feel bones tryin' not to break and see that the elbow she's preparing is gonna stop any and all resistance from it, so I run around her to loosen her grip, twist her wrist while getting her to let go of mine, and bring her to the ground with it. She kicks my head and flips up, massaging her wrist. She roundhouses my waist and snap kicks high enough to catch me in the chin, which hurts like hell. I jump back, shunpo right under her chin, and uppercut it. She backs up, stunned for a second, so I right cross her face and she spins because of it. I ax her spine and she drops to her knees and sweeps my feet. I put on a guard for any attack coming for my face or torso, but instead she kicks me in the back. Hard. And many times over before I'm finally able to arch my back far enough to get some leeway and get a quick kick to her face. I drop to the ground and she tries to stomp my throat, but I grab the foot, stand up, spin around and slam her into the ground. She gets up immediately and makes a killer straight to my gut. This causes me to accidentally double up and clutch my gut. She takes advantage of that by kicking me full in the face. I manage not to look into the sky at the cost of taking the blow full on, causing my nose to break. I sweep her feet and she guards her top the same way I did, so I get under her and bicycle kick her back. After a few seconds I launch her into the air, flip onto my feet, and jump after her. I see her face and realize she's smiling, me finally feeling my own maniac grin while I'm at it. I kick her across the sky and she skids to a stop in the air.

"Just like old times, huh?" Shea asks.

"Even better since neither of us is holdin' back." I reply

"Oh please! I know you're a lot faster than you've been showin' and I haven't even busted out my combos yet!"

"Give it a shot then." I shunpo to her right side and punch her in the side of her head. She cartwheels to keep from flying and roundhouses my torso. I catch it after contact, but then she brings the other leg up and kicks me across the face. I'm stunned so I backpedal and let go of her leg. Big mistake since she punches me in my open stomach. And the angle she punched me has been used on me so many times I know it's only the beginning.

"You know where I'm sendin' ya, right?" she asks and my eyes fly open as my suspicious is confirmed. She always says that corny phrase right before she uses "The Grave". I drag in a couple of deep breaths and throw up a defensive stance just as her first punch flies. I manage to hit her fist with the side of my left arm and bring my right knee up to guard my stomach from a straight kick. A roundhouse goes to my head and I duck, a cross goes for my left shin and I take the blow in the knee instead. Her knee catches my forehead, but I keep steady. I know if my stance breaks, I'm screwed. I also know Shea's gonna do everything in her power to ensure I break. The knee turns into a snap and I brace my chest against the kick. I uppercut but she happens to be throwing a punch down at me at the same time, so they meet in the middle. I use that time to resecure my stance and and sidestep as I pull my punch. That causes Shea to keep going, so I throw a knee into her gut and she throws a back hand at my face. My body wants to move with my head, but I force to to hold stance. She gets off my knee and sweeps, which I counter by stomping her ankle when I reaches my right leg. She uses this grounding to launch a brutal punch into my gut. Unfortunately, she connects and it hits so hard and double up and my stance crumbles. She takes that opportunity to switch into refined mode, meaning she's now gonna target any opening she sees or creates.

First punch goes for my face, which I lean out of. She kicks where my head went (to the right) and I have to use m right wrist to block it. Shea shifts it so that my wrist is on her knee and drops her elbow on the other side of it, pinning my wrist between her knee and elbow. We hear the sickly crunch of my wrist shattering and I immediately know the situation's gone to hell. My right hand is my dominant and defensive hand, so I know she's gonna start attacking my right side. Sure 'nough, she aims a punch for my right ribs and I have to duck so it scrapes the top of my head instead. I flip over the arm, twisting it with my left hand and I go. The arm goes to it's limits and I give it the final twist, taking a sick pleasure in the sound of her arm dislocating. This means I stopped "The Grave" since she, even though she's ambidextrous, she prefers to use her left arm fro wheedling weak spots.

"Wow, you've gotten good." Shea compliments. I don't stop to revel in it though, figuring it's Shea way of buying time 'til my body registers all the pain it's supposed to be feeling. I straight punch her gut with my good arm, a really stupid move as she grabs it with her right hand and twists it high into the air. Then she kicks the base of my arm. I can actually feel the muscles in my left arm snap and it hurt like hell. And this is only with my body being unresponsive to pain!

"You're through." Shea declares. In response, I rise my knee in place. I'm kinda a practitioner of Anything Goes Martial Arts, and Tae Kwon Do is a style that has served me well in the past. I mean, a style where both my hands could be useless and I can still use my legs effectively? How could I now adopt it?

"I've still got these, right?" I say, putting my foot back down. I shunpo next to her and reverse roundhouse her left side. She sacrifices her left elbow to stop me from hitting her ribs, but I jumping ax her already torn up left shoulder. She grits her teeth as her shoulder dislocates farther down her body. I crescent kick her right side upon landing and spinning kick her left elbow again. She launches a high side kick, but I front kick her other knee before it connects and her kick loses power and balance. With those two things gone, the kick is slow and she pulls it back before I can do anything with it. I aim a flying kick at her right side with my left leg, but when she goes to grab it, as I predicted she would, I switch it into a flying back kick with my right leg on her left side. It makes full on contact with her shoulder and I think the entire arm finally becomes unusable. With it laying limply to the side, she pulls the right one into it's chamber

"I Release...!" she yells. Then she disappears on me, only to appear half a second later throwing a punch. Even though I grab it, it tears through my weakened hands right into my stomach. I almost black out and cough out a little blood.

"...all the pain you've given me...!" she brings her knee into the same exact spot her punch landed and I throw up more blood.

"...back unto you." she softly flicks my forehead, but, as close to unconsciousness as I am, it's the final blow. I crumple to the ground as darkness surrounds me. I curse myself for forgetting Shea's natural ability. If my body ignores pain in battle, Shea's stores it to release in bursts of strength she simply calls, "Ender".


	24. Final Inter

Chapter 24: Final Inter

Freezing cold water hits me in the face and someone shouts, "Alright! Get up!". Even with the freezing water in my face, I can't force myself to get up or open my eyes. Unfortunately, the pain in my arms and gut shoots off, causing me to sit straight up and scream. I almost black out again.

"Darius?" Trel asks. Wordlessly, Darius comes over, sits down right beside me, and begins to speed up the healing process. It only takes two seconds, but what an excruciating two seconds those were.

"If only I could do this when we were alive." Darius laughs. "Then whenever Montage and Shea had a fight, we could've hit an arena right after rather than wait months afterwards."

"Whenever...? How often did they do this?" Mana asks.

"Hmmmm. Depends on their mood towards each other that year. If they were hostile, they would launch into a fight as soon as one of them healed. If not, maybe once or twice within an eight month period."

"Alright! Enough with that. Mana, what 'cha got me doin' next?" I ask, knowing full well she wasn't gonna let me drown in memories for too much longer."

"Quick Draw. Trel can only be out of his sheath for two seconds before his cloaking affect disappears. 1) You've gotta work on increasing that time through practice and 2) You've gotta be able to draw, attack, and sheath in that time."

"Sounds easy enough." Trel disappears and I feel his zanpakuto in my left sleeve. I move to the middle of the street between the house and farm and grab the hilt and pull, making a crescent in the air and try to put him back. Try being the key word. I cut my kimono in the attempt and the two seconds expire before I sheath him. I hear this shattering sound and see broken glass falling towards me. I try to dive outta the way, but my feet don't follow and I just eat up landing flat on my face. Then the glass falls into my back as I use Trel to keep the shards off my neck. It takes all of 2 seconds for the shards to finish fallin', by the end of which I was screamin', "What the hell!?"

_**"Steel feet, bro."**_ Trel says. **_"In my training, you do it right or the cloak literally breaks around you and rains glass on you. Even in that case, you should be able to Quick Draw them away."_**

"Alright. I got 'cha." I mumble as I pull glass out of my back. I try it again, but this time instead of stabbing my kimono, I stab my left wrist pretty deeply. I start bleedin' a lot and I rip my right sleeve off (it was just hangin' there anyway, my left had Trel's sheath so I couldn't do that one) and wrap a fragment of it around my wrist as glass rains on my back again. I pull the shards out of my back again, bleeding steadily from each and every one of the wounds, and try it again. I tear another piece of my left sleeve and the barrier breaks again. I use Trel to stab any fragments comin' for my head or neck and sheath him as the glass stops fallin'. Wait a second! I sheathed him! And the glass had just gotten through fallin' so it was 2 seconds.

_**"That was SO a fluke."**_ Trel declares. It was, but I'm not gonna admit it.

"I bet that's what you're gonna tell me the next time I get it right." I figure it's easier to stab than swing, so I pull Trel and immediately start stabbin'. At 2 seconds, I sheath him.

_**"Only 10!? That's pitiful!"**_

"Look who's talkin' Mr. All-I-Do-Is-Cloak-And-Stab!"

_**"I could get more stabs than you!"**_

"THE HELL YOU CAN!!!" I pull and stab again, increasing the number of stabs to 12 before sheathing. Trel's still makin' fun of me, but this still feels a bit weird so I stop paying attention and concentrate on this. I pull and stab. 18 this time before forcing myself to sheath. 19 next time and it begins to feel a little more natural. 21 this time, but I didn't bother counting the seconds 'cause I figure something out. I can feel when the barrier's about to break 'cause Trel will vibrate a little. That's my cue to stop stabbing and sheath quickly. I get to 75 after a long time before my arm begins to clamp up and I'm forced to stop and sheath Trel. "How many seconds was that?" I ask him.

_**"You can now use me for about 15 seconds, but it doesn't look like your arm's making it past the 5 second mark."**_

"Tage, you've done good enough for now." Mana declares. Trel's weight in my demolished sleeve disappears and I see him by the door of the house. I'm still there for now before I realize why Mana stopped the session. My right arm is completely numb and I can't move it. "You've got a combined total of 8250 stabs within a 5 minute period, or 27 and a half stabs per second, before your arm completely stops. I suggest you don't force yourself to overstep that limit unless you'd like to keep your arm from blowing out. I think you know how painful that is." I sure as hell do. When Mom had just started to teach us shunpo, I went overboard and tried to push past my numb legs, against Mom's advice. The result was both my legs blowing out and Mom beatin' the crap outta me for "being dumb enough to do that shit.". Second most painful thing I've ever experienced, the first being my bout with Asesino twenty years ago.

"Well, Shea's ready ta go, but Montage is obviously not." Darius says. "Get some sleep while I repair your arm and back. You're gonna need it since I can not do anything 'bout your blood loss." He doesn't have ta tell me twice. Darkness surrounds me even before I hit the ground practically face first.


	25. Final Fight Last Day

Chapter 25: Final Fight/ Last Day

I get a face full of freezing world what feels like minutes later. It's probably hours afterwards though.

"Alright, get up!" Mana yells at me. Where does she keep gettin' the cold water from!? What, does she freeze it with her stare? I get hit in the head by the bucket holding the water. "Your thoughts are no secret to us in here." Oh yeah. I forgot about that. "In any case, today's the last safe day you can do this."

"Safe?" I ask groggily. Near-frozen water or not, it's always taken me a long time ta get up unless I get a severe shock.

"Yeah. I surveyed your soul while your were out and I'm startin' ta see signs of breakage due to the trainin'. This is the last day I can guarantee you stay whole."

"OK then!" I flip off the floor and start stretching out and warming up. This was a big enough shock to wake me up and get me ready ta go. I grab Shea off my back, stab the doll, and jump back as quickly as possible since a snap kick flies from the newly reawakened Shea. I run forward and ram her with my shoulder, carrying her on it for a bit before comin' to a complete stop to throw her off. She flips over to land on her feet and shunpos over ta my left side. I lean back to avoid the brutal lookin' punch aimed for my cheek and cartwheel to avoid any other attacks and get a kick to her chin at the same time. Upon landing I sweep her feet, but she jumps up and drop kicks me dead in the chest, causin' me to lose all breath and stagger back as she hits the floor. We recover quickly and charge each other, me lookin' ta kick and Shea lookin' like she's about ta punch. I roundhouse with her right leg to cancel her left cross and use her the same leg to spinning kick her in the left side of the head without putting it down. She swaggers to the right a little, but throws a punch to my gut before I can put my foot down. I wince a little, but grab her arm and make to twist it. Unfortunately she twists right along with it so it looks like we're creating a mini-tornado. I see this is going nowhere fast, so I suddenly stop spinning Shea and slam her into the ground, not letting go of her arm. I place my foot and the base of her arm and, while pulling the arm as hard as I can, stomp on it. I can practically feel the muscles in her left arm snappin'. She kicks me dead in the head and flips back up once I stagger back a bit. Her arm's hanging off her side, so I know it's useless. She slowly rises the supposedly useless arm and puts it in it's chamber.

"It's gonna take more than that to shut me down." she growls. She shunpos to my right side and uses the limp left arm to backhand my face. The fact that I wasn't expecting that makes the stun a little worse than usual as I slide back. Shea runs behind my and elbows my spine with her back to mine and I counter that by back kicking the back of her knee, It buckles and she almost kneels. I spin around, roundhousing the side of her head while I'm at it, and she goes flyin' to the side. She catches herself before any serious damage is done and brings herself to a shaky stand, smile visible even with yards dividing us. I can feel a smile just as sick and twisted on my face now. I can't remember a time when I had this much fun or smiled this hard!! We charge each other again and I spinning rib at her left ribs with my right leg, but she traps it between her left arm and her ribs, which surprises me. Surprises me so much, I almost don't register that she just used that limp arm to break my right foot. As I've said before, my right side is my dominant side, so it's pretty bad when my foot's taken down. It's hard to operate with only my leg foot. Shunpo is now practically useless seeing as even a tender touch to the group with my foot leaves me with a pain so excruciating that it's like lightning ran up my right leg and into my brain. Despite that, I use my left leg to propel myself at Shea's gut, which becomes a harsh headbutt that leaves Shea breathless. I jump back and upon landing I roundhouse Shea in the ribs with the main part of my right leg. Since my foot doesn't go off again, I assume it's OK to do that. I jump back again and try to stabilize myself on my left leg, which is still pretty damn hard. Shea's clutching her ribs, which leads me to believe that I broke a few. She brings her right arm into its chamber and drops into a low stance. Here's the moment of truth, she's using the "Ender" again. If I can figure a way to dodge it, with the condition she's in I can end this. Otherwise... Keeeekk (knife across throat sound, sorry if that sucked). She starts moving and it's like my entire life passes before my eyes. Then my memories start skipping through all the times she used this on me just for kicks. I start noticing she only moved in a straight line. Does that mean if I can time this right that I can jump over it? I decide to try it, knowing too early and she's gonna redirect the attack, too late and I'm not jumping in the first place.

"I release...!" she shouts and I take that as my cue to jump. I feel her fist scrape across my knee and start thanking God like there's no tomorrow. I lock my legs around her head and do a flip backwards so her head lands right in the pavement, completing the Frankensteiner. I roll forward, put my weight on my left leg, and put up a quick defense just in case she gets up, but she just falls onto her back and lies still. I stand up straight and limp over to Shea. Judging from her eyes being open, but completely blank and the fact that she's not movin', I declare her KO'd.

"I...won?" I ask. I'm still shocked I managed to dodge "Ender", but winning a bout with Shea, that's just not possible to me yet. When reality sets in and I feel EVERY injury Shea gave me, but amplified. My foot feels as if it's in a oven on Hell Heat, my chest feels dented, my spine feels two seconds away from crackin', my head is about ta split in two, and my knee has completely shut down even though it still feels like I shoved it into a cement block a few hundred times. If I was normal, then I'm betting that I would've lost consciousness a long time ago. But I'm not, so I lose it right now.

Another cold splash in the face. "Look, you're gonna get enough of throwin' water in my face!" I snap as I sit up.

"Well, sorry, but payback's a bitch." Shea says, holding the bucket Mana usually did.

"Hardy har har. Well, I finally beat you!"

"That's only because your body..."

"Is absolutely awesome!"

"OK, so you won. What's that? 532 to 1?"

"Oh shut up."

"Enough, you two! You've done enough fighting for one day." Mana yells. "Congratulations, Tage. Now Shea can go into bankai."

"Sweet! What's it like?"

"Don't know yet, seeing as she's a new zanpakuto. More than likely it'll just build on what 'cha got already."

"You'd better be awesome." I say to Shea

"I don't have to be, just as long as it gets the job done." We sit in silence for a little bit, me thinking about how I can't wait to unleash Shea's bankai. "Hey, Tage, you know that move I attempted as a kid?" Shea says suddenly. I have to think about it for a minute.

"Yeah, the one I got farther in mastering than you?" The move in question is unnamed right now since neither of us could finish it. It consists of hits comin' in at so fast that they're practically invisible and holding that routine so long that the enemy would be completely unable to move and we end up fine afterwards. Or test dummy (AKA Trel) could always move after we tried it and we end banged up at the end., so it was deemed a failure. I got farther only because my body didn't register the strain until it was forced to shut down. "What about it?"

"Well, you're faster and stronger than you were back then. Just something ta think about."

"Will do."

"Alright, Tage, your body is movable again. Time to go back."


	26. Report House Repairs

Chapter 26: Report/ House repairs

(Part of this is a summary chapter, so skip through it to the phone conversation if you don't want to re-read the past 5 days of Tage's life)

I wake up immediately, or so it feels to my body. I know for a fact that I was just asleep for three days. The sun's high in the sky and my clock tells me that it's 2 PM. My arms and legs are movable, but they still hurt a little so I decide ta take it easy for the day.

"Oy, Kazumi! Get out here! I know you're awake, I can feel your reiatsu spiking now." Karin yells. There goes my take it easy plan. I walk cautiously out the door and my mouth drops to the floor.

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU 3 MANAGE TA DESTROY HALF THE FRICKIN' HOUSE!?!?!?" I scream, reiatsu spiking even higher for a second. Then I bring it back to normal.

"Well, Destiny decided to surprise you by having the house construction started before you woke up..." Kim begins. "Only...she...um..."

"Karin came over and pissed me off so I accidentally smashed it in , OK!?" Destiny finishes, sounding pissed. I sigh. I might as well take my Take it Easy plan, rip it up into millions of pieces, and shove the fragments into the mouths of each of the responsible parties.

"OK." I say, taking a deep, calming breath. "And how long ago was this?" My voice gets progressively icier and Kim fidgets a little. "No,no, let me guess. Right after I went to sleep right?" Kim's fidgeting gets worse and Destiny recoils. Nail right on the head. "Karin, what the hell did you do?" Through the whole convo, Karin looked unfazed, but now she jumps a little.

"Nothing! I just commented on how everything around you're around is broken at some point."

I force my voice to lift back into its usual joyous sound, even though it feels like someone took a crotch shot at me. "Destiny, why'd ya overreact like that? It's pretty much true."

"See? You didn't like her sayin' it either!" Destiny claims. When did she get so good at seeing though my fronts?

"No, I don't." I throw a death glare at Karin, but she seems unfazed. "But I didn't DESTROY THE HOUSE IN RETALIATION!!!" I turn away from the house and pull out my cell.

"What are you doing, Kaz...Montage?" Kim asks

"Arranging a fight with Kenpachi or something relieving! I'm way too stressed out to be counted on to make any peaceful decision right now!"

"You are kidding about the Zaraki-taicho part, right?" As the line starts connecting, she realizes I'm not. Then I start thinkin' properly: I am not 100% yet, but I'm tryin' to pick a fight with Kenpachi. Smart idea? Nope and Unohana-taicho would show me that personally if I went through with it. I flip the phone shut, thinkin' "HOLY SHIT. I was about 2 seconds from gettin' my ass kicked by Kenpachi THEN Unohana-taicho." I shiver

"OK, maybe that was a bad idea. So get me something to do before I make another."

"There's always the house." Karin suggests. I give her another death glare, this one accompanied by some murderous intent and she flinches. I sigh and whip out my cell again.

"That's not another Zaraki call, is it?" Destiny asks. I shake my head as the line starts connecting.

"Hullo?" the voice on the other line says, voice full of sleep.

"OK, Unohana-taicho, an informal greetin' from you just sounds weird." I comment.

"Kazumi-kun!?" Unohana-taicho sounds fully awake now and more than a little shocked. "Is something wrong? Your voice is full of malice."

"My squad has put me in a really bad mood and I don't feel like blowing them sky high right after waking up."

"OH, is that is all? Obtain an entire division then we can discuss annoyances." I am a little shocked. Unohana-taicho jokes are few and I just heard one. At least I hope that was one.

"I don't think your division practically destroyed your childhood home over something as trivial as a bad comment."

"I don't recall your squad getting bored and causing the underground tunnels to collapse while you were forced to pick up the pieces."

"OK, ya got me there for now. I'm sure eventually they'll figure a way to top that. Or at least Destiny will." I laugh. I knew talkin' with Unohana-taicho would calm me down.

"So, I have not gotten a report from you in 5 days. Give it to me now."

"OK, so 5 days ago I found my Hollow and confirmed the identity. It's really my mom. Worse is she's not a Hollow, but an Arrancar. I caused her to retreat to Hueco Mundo with the help of Diz."

"Oh geez. Not Diz!"

"Yeah, Diz. Afterwards she picked a fight with me were I defeated her while causing as little damage to her body as possible only because Destiny stopped me. She had stabbed Destiny to achieve shikai and I threw thoughts away and attacked and stopped when Destiny grabbed me." I decided to omit what happens for a while after. It was either too personal to a subordinate or too embarrassing. "I was severely injured and drained from both battles, so I went to Kurosaki clinic to recover. The next day, an uncounted number of Hollows showed up in front of the house and we were forced to dispatch those, us getting very battered, me due to a move I used. We stumbled back to the house and I went to sleep for three days while I recovered from all this shit. That's the report."

"You sound like you've been busy. My only discrepancy is with the Hollows. We would've picked us on a number that big."

"More than likely Mom, who is now goin' by Existencia Olvida, cloaked the presence of the Hollows somehow. I'll send a sample of her reiatsu captured on my clothes to analyze so she can't do it again."

"Understood. I'm sorry to hear all of this and then say this, but I'll say it anyway. Please hurry up and finish your assignment." I could hear this was more of an order than a request. "The faster you do this, the faster you'll move on and the less people on your mother's conscience when she's cleansed." Looking at it this way, it sounds like I'm doin' Mom a favor by fighting her.

"On it." I send the sample as promised and hang up. "OK! Let's get movin'!" I call to the girls.

"Where?" Destiny asks.

"Well, we need loads of wood, paint for the new room, paint for my damaged room and replace the broken goods, paint for the living room, hard hats, and loads of tools." I list. While I'm thinkin' about it, I dash up to my room to check the damage. For once, I was glad that the rooms were all on one side of the house since it that caused my room to suffer minimal damage. Most of the posters on the destroyed wall had simply fallen off and could be reattached later, although I can't say the same for the window and or the clock that used to be on the wall. Oh well, they're cheap anyway. With damages counted, we head out. I send Kim for paint, Destiny for the wood (that's some heavy liftin', a start for silent punishment), and Karin for hard hats (she's gonna have ta go on the opposite side of town at human speeds, about all I can do without incurring the wrath of Goat) while I grab another alarm, some wall plaster, windows, tiles for the roof, and tools. It's times like this I really wish there was a single shop that had all this stuff within it. Lined with stuff wall to wall, I'd call it Wal-Mart. I have to run (I can't shunpo due to my legs not being 100% so people'll see me if I do) to 5 or 6 different shops to get the stuff, each time the owner lookin' at me like I was crazy when I ask for the materials. 5 hours and (the equivalent of) 1000 (dollars) later, I'm back at home to find that (a) Destiny somehow beat me back and (b) the house is repaired and bigger than before.

"What the fuck!?" I shout, nearly dropping my stuff. My cell rings and I drop the stuff anyway as I mindlessly pick it up and say "Yo."

"Hey." a gruff voice answers. Oh shit! Kenpachi must be callin' back about the fight call. I REALLY didn't mean it, but I doubt he'd listen ta that.

"Listen, I..."

"The job done OK?"

"Say what?"

"The house done OK?" What the fuck is Kenpachi doin' repairing my house!?

"Yeah, yeah, it's good, but why did ya feel the need ta repair my house?"

"Unohana forgave you for the wall, not me." Ooooooh. That makes a lot more sense.

"So was this enough to buy forgiveness?"

"Nah. Now we gotta do it everytime you manage to break it." I almost break out laughing. Division 11, my construction men? Fuckin' priceless! I choked the laughter in my throat and continue

"Well, I'll try not to break it again. I know what it is, man. Unohana-taicho quote/unquote accidentally broke the wall 5 or 6 times and had me fix it better than new." Kenpachi busts out laughing. Apparently he's not as good in self restraint as I am. I just hang up and think of a creative way to break the house. Seeing Destiny reminds me the other two are still out. I call them up and tell them not to bother with the supplies.


	27. Second Encounter Keikan Shea

Chapter 27: Second Encounter/ Keikan Shea

"Good, I can't find a good place for hard hats." Karin says.

"Understood, Kaz... I mean Montage. Re...dammit!" Kim's cell drops and I feel THE Arrancar right next to her.

"C'mon, Destiny!" I ditch my body right next to the house and run like a bat outta hell. I see Kim on the ground, blood flowing from a hole in her gut and blood all over Olvida's hand.

"Oh, hello Kazumi Montage." she says in an absolute calm. " I was just getting rid of the psychopath before we..." I sweep her feet and kick her away.

"DESTINY!" I call, doing some emergency first aid and sealing the gigantic wound.

"Sir!"

"Get Kim to Kurosaki clinic NOW!" Without another word Destiny's got Kim in her arms and goes.

"Now it's just you and me." Olvida declares. I laugh and I do so hysterically. This catches her off guard.

"Me and you?" I laugh. "Yeah right! I can feel the hundreds of Hollows drowning in your reiatsu surrounding us." she recoils, but recovers so quickly it was like it never happened. She snaps her fingers and the Hollows come out of hiding. I pull Shea out and sorta cradle the sword. "You know, Olvida, I was always closest to Shea. We used to compete all the time, so we know each others limits better than we know our own. Right now she's screamin; at me that this is out of my limits."

Olvida smiles as if she's just won.

"That's why I'm using both of our limits. Shea, BANKAI!" Shea disbursts and becomes her usual gloved form. Then spirit particles in the area form on it and expand it to the middle of my arm, providing more protective surface. A red spiral starts glowing on the fist of the glove, from which white padding spews out of 'til the basic glove is covered, increasing the damage this thing's gonna do without hurting my hand much. My sandals disappear and my hakami tightens so it wasn't nearly as loose as before, but not tight enough to constrict my movements. My bare feet are soon covered by black Swisses that my sister loved. "Keikan Shea!" I declare.

Olvida looked scared when I screamed bankai, but now she starts laughing.

"That's the puniest bankai I've ever seen! Aren't bankai supposed to be huge?" she laughs.

"Ever heard of Kurosaki Ichigo?" I counter. The laughing dies in her throat. I figure every Arrancar's heard of Kurosaki since he charged into Hueco Mundo for a friend. In that respect, he's my idol: always willing to put his life down for those close to him. "He had a puny bankai yet he kicked the shit outta your people." The murderous look on her face tells me I've hit a nerve.

"Attack!" she commands the Hollows and, like the obedient dogs they are, they follow without hesitation.

"Kigai!" I call, except now the reiatsu fills the right hand and the left foot. I throw a cross to send the reiatsu out in a crescent shape and use the energy in my foot to launch myself high in the air, maybe 20 miles high. I use the energy in my foot again to start propelling me down. "I can make Shea a big bankai if I want!" I call to Olvida. "Banryoko!" Behind me, a 16 foot hand came outta nowhere and joined itself with my right hand. "Wanryoko!" I scream as I slam my fist into the ground. Even without the reiatsu stored in my fist, the earth beneath me crumbles and a gigantic crater enveloped everything within a 10 foot radius. Basically every Hollow Olvida brought. When the crater fully cracks open, I release the stored reiatsu into the cracks and the explosion's so big it creates it's own mushroom. And I haven't broken a sweat yet. "And then there was one." I say as I rise from the crater, pushing the giant hand off. Don't get me wrong, it deals a lotta damage and I love it, but it also wastes a lot of reiatsu unnecessarily, as I find out when it starts breaking through my bodies natural numbness. As soon as it's off though, a lot of the reiatsu comes back to me.

"No way! 500 Hollows in 3 moves!" Olvida says in shock.

"You should know the difference bankai makes in someone sense you apparently know all about how they should be."

"This should be some fun" Olvida draws her zanpakuto and I get ready for any attack. "Borra el mundo, Masacre!" she calls instead. The zanpakuto falls into pieces and reforms around her fingertips , or so it appears. Her mask drops from her hair and covers her entire face. It looks like a hawk, beak included. Her legs grow talons at the end of them and amber wings sprout from her back. If that wasn't enough she grew several feet and gets a bit more muscular. I don't want any surprises, so I take a closer look at the wings and see they are made up of lots of mini-zanpakuto and contain a lot of reiatsu. She sinks her feet into the ground and launches at me at blinding speeds. I'm not ready for it, so I have to jump to avoid it, them I start thinking. Air's gotta be her turf with all the bird equipment shes got, so I launch a Kigai to send me back to the ground. On my back, but still. I flip up and spot her flapping away right above me.

"Diespersa!" The wings of mini-zanpakuto scatter and fly at me. They come in all directions so I can't run. I can only make sure none of them are life-threatenin'. I Kigai a cluster comin' for my face and miss the ones that scrape across my left arm. I ax-kick a bunch comin' for my gut and knees and take a lot in the thighs. They don't seem ta be stoppin' and I can't protect vital areas and not the limps forever. Eventaully my arms and legs will shut down due ta pain, so I punch into the earth to create a slim, long cylinder to jump into. Unfortunately I take a lot of chibi-zanpakuto in the back. From the cylinder, they can only come in a straight line, so I can Kigai them as they try ta come in. After a few minutes, they suddenly stop.

"Kazumi-kun, are you still alive?" a familiar voice asks. I crawl outta my hole ta find Unohana-taicho holdin' off Olvida's nails and her wings are fully grown in again.

"Very." I answer as I jump to meet Olvida's descending beak. I've never seen Unohana-taicho's zanpakuto before now and see it's a nodachi with a rope strap at the end. Olvida aims her talons at Unohana-taicho's gut, but I catch it and punch through where the ankle should be. I'm now holdin' her right talon. This doesn't last long as it becomes dust and reforms at the stump of her leg.

"Kazumi-kun, could you please take the claws for a while?" Unohana-taicho asks, even though it doesn't look like she's breakin' much of a sweat.

"Sure." I say and we trade places, me holdin' Olvida's claws while Unohana-taicho stands back. Immediately I start wonderin' how she held these things so easily for so long without breakin' a sweat. She must be hella strong or I must be exhausted.

"Sprinkled on the bones of the beast!" taicho starts and I recognize it as Hado #63

"Mask of blood and flesh, all creation." I recognize that as the other Hado #63 and realize she's gonna use both at once. But aren't those supposed ta be difficult ta control?

"Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring"

"Flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man!

"Move and become the wind, stop and become the calm." Olvida starts strugglin' ta break free, but I restrain her.

"On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus. It gets harder ta hold Olvida

"The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle!

"In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens!" Olvida breaks free

"Bakudo #9: Strike!" I yell and Olvida is engulfed in my reiatsu and can't move

"Hado #63, Hado #63: Thunder Roar Cannon, Twin Lotus of Blue Fire, Crash Down!" Two blue fire shots speed forward with a massive wave of yellow energy in the center. As they crash into Olvida, I'm pretty sure she's done for. When the smoke clears, however, she's perfectly alright, with the exception of a large hole in her waist.

"Cero's a bitch, huh?" Olvida rasps. I'm shocked. Unless she simultaneously fired two ceros, I don't see how that worked. My flimsy Bakudo gives way and she spreads her wings towards us. "Bala Cero" From the tips of the wings, thousands of Ceros from and I'm thinkin' we're screwed.

_**"Tage, do IT!" **_Shea commands. I step in front of Unohana-taicho and call "Ikioidzuku!" From the tip of the gloves in front of the spirals, one yellowish-gray spike from each hand raises, facing away from each other, and projects a faint blue wave between them. The ceros then rain down on the wave and as it's battered with them, the blue becomes more and more solid. But that didn't mean they were catchin' the Ceros, not by a long shot. It softened them so they don't kill me in one shot, but I can tell I'm comin' outta this pretty battered.

"Kazumi Montage, stand down!!" Taicho commands, a little panic in her voice.

"Wait a second, Unohana-taicho." The Ceros continue ta rain and the wave gets more and more solid. "Could ya throw your most powerful Bakudo at Olvida right now?" I ask

"Right! Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini!" Surely #9 can't be her strongest!

"Carriage of thunder" Oh, I get it! She's doin' that double technique again.

"Look upon yourself with horror." My wave becomes as solid as it's gonna get

"Bridge of a spinning wheel." The wave starts dying itself red

"And then claw out your own throat!"

"With lightm divide this into six! Bakudo #9, Bakudo #61: Strike, Six Rods Prison of Light!" The Ceros cease and Olvida is engulfed in Unohana-taicho's reiatsu, better than in mine because of the incantation, and six light rods slam into her midsection. At the same time, my waves dye themselves a full blood red.

"Prepare yourself! Chikaraippaini!" The wave transforms into a dragon. It roars and engulfs me. A split second later, I'm in Olvida's face throwin' 20 attacks per second, all strong enough ta accidentally cause a Kigai effect. This beating lasts the planned 46 seconds and an eight of a second with 936 blows. "Attack number 937!!" I shout. I throw a straight punch that releases the dragon as soon as it makes contact. The dragon drags Olvida through the air and explodes when it gets what looks ta be about 20 miles into the air, just barely savein' us from the explosion. I stop to pant wildly. As cool a move as that is, it has 2 drawbacks: First is in the beginning I can only move in a straight line, so if the enemy moves while I charge at them I'm screwed, much like Shea's "Ender", and I took the entire beating for nothin'. Second, and more importantly, is that I am completely spent at the end of it. The only reason I'm standin' right now is because my body hasn't registered how tore up it is yet.

"Kazumi-kun... What was that?" Unohana-taicho asks. I don't respond though. My body finally clues in ta how it's supposed ta be right now and I go sailin' through the air on a course for the ground, Shea deforming and sheathing as I go. What really sucks is that I'm completely conscious the entire time I'm fallin' but I can't stop myself from fallin'. I feel a soft pair of hands stop my descent about 2 feet before I crash.


	28. Damage Control

Chapter 28: Damage Control

Mon937: Well, I should be updating this biweekly now since I visit my dad's house at least once bi-weekly.I still don't know what to say here, so I'll just cut it here

"Kazumi-kun! What's wrong!?" Unohana-taicho is screamin' at me, but I can't feel my body at all so I can't my mouth to respond. Instead, I gather my reiatsu and summon Shea to the Material World.

"Sorry, lady, but Tage can't do much of anythin' right now." Shea says. Unohana-taicho jumps back a little. Apparently she didn't see that comin'

"What!? Who are you?"

"I'm his older sister and zanpakuto, Shea." Shea's not fightin' right now, so she's got a loose red T-shirt on saying "Weird is a way of life" in black letters, black faded jeans, and white Converses. Her hair is braided much like Unohana's, but it stays completely in the back and only comes down to the top of the neck.

"I am the Captain of Division..."

"4, Unohana Retsu. Yeah, I know. Pretty much whatever Tage knows, we know."

"So what is wrong with Kazumi-kun?" Shea breaks out laughin'

"Sorry, but it's still funny to hear Tage talked 'bout with honorifics!" she laughs. In about a minute, she finally stops. "In any case, the move he used, Chikaraippaini, was a move I started when I was officially alive. I never finished it, didn't have the speed or stamina and I found my body basically refused ta go past the 200 hit mark. The idiot here..." she taps my head with her foot. "saw me one day and tried his own version. He was always better with shunpo, he could take more punishment, and his body never registered anything that wasn't crippling until he went idle, so I though t he could pull it off. He got ta 519 before his arm muscles blew. When he recovered he, never admitting defeat, tried again and got off 458 blows so his muscles wouldn't blow again. Because of that, we'd thrown it in as a Last Resort type of move. While he was unconscious after the Hollow Melee, we talked about reopenin' it. This was the beta test and it was a failure since all the muscles in his body are so thrashed basically all he can do is blink." Shea explains.

"If it's a problem with his muscles, I can assist." Unohana-taicho declares.

"This, I've gotta see." Shea crosses her arms and observes. Unohana-taicho unsheathes her nodachi and instantly it transforms into a giant one-eyed manta ray. If I could widen my eyes, I would, but I can't. Good thing Shea does it for me. "Minazuki, could you please swallow Kazumi-kun?" she asks it. Without answering, the thing swallows me up.

"Wow...Just...wow." I hear Shea say as I go down. I'm expectin' some digestive system, like the stomach would digest my wounds or somethin'. What I get is a dip in an ocean of some goo that feels kinda like Jell-O. The only difference is I have absolutely no desire ta eat this stuff vs me devouring Jell-O like it was water. At first the stuff is warm, then the goo starts heatin' up around my achin' muscles, which would basically be my entire body. As this is happenin', I feel my muscles relax and the pain slides right off. It's like I've got a team of massage elites attendin' to every little pore in my body, or at least that's the best way I can explain it.. Then the bruises from the Bala Cero rain start slidin' off as if they were butter in a hot pan. I expect it to stop there, but it goes farther. Cuts I'd received in both encounters with Olvida close up finally, scars left by Zaraki shrunk in severity though they refused to leave completely, left over bone fragmentations from my underground days as a completely alive human finally fixed themselves.

"I'm good!" I shout to Minazuki. "Could ya please spit me out, or whatever you're gonna do?" The heat in the gel cools down to normal temperature.

"But I can still feel many injuries all over your body." A kindly female voice says. It's got that nurse at the hospital serenity to it with none of the forced sound. She sounds genuinely worried. :Are you sure you would like to leave those, Kazumi-kun?" Minazuki asks.

"Yea, I'm sure. The remainin' scars have been there so long, they feel like a part of me. I'm not willing to leave 'em." I explain.

"Understood." The solid/liquid raises up to an opening that just appeared and I find myself in front of my house. Covered in goo.

"What is this stuff anyway?" The question was aimed at either Unohana-taicho or Minazuki

"That is Minazuki's digestive fluids." Unohana-taicho answers. I guess Minazuki really did digest me, in a way. "Your body must have been pretty badly injured. It is 4AM now." I recoil a bit, but recover quickly.

"Before ya seal Minazuki, let me check on Kim." I say to Unohana-taicho.

"What happened to her? Where is she?"

"Olvida jumped... Oh shit! Where's Olvida!?" I start frantically lookin' around before I remember we're nowhere near where we used ta be.

"There was a Negacion field and the fragments of Olvida remaining disappeared into Hueco Mundo." I curse to myself. Chikaraippaini still has a long way ta go if any piece of Olvida was remainin' . And since she didn't disburse into a Hell Butterfly, I have ta assume one of the remainin' fragments was her mask and she's still alive and kickin'. "So, about Iono-chan..."

"Oh, right. Olvida jumped her as soon as she got outta Hueco Mundo and I told Destiny ta get her ta the Kurosaki Clinic. Her injuries are now mainly internal since I patched the skin together. Even then, it's probably only a piece of intestine missin, but I wanna be sure." I report. Unohana-taicho nods and we ride Minazuki to Kurosaki's. I all but kick the door off it's hinges. "Is Kim alright!?" I shout

"Tage? Unohana-taicho!?" Destiny shouts back. I breathe a sigh of relief. Unfortunately Unohana-taicho doesn't get the same memo.

"You can seal Minazuki now. If Destiny's callin' me by nickname then there's nothin' wrong." I explain

"You know me that well!?" Destiny's astonished and the look on her face brings a smile to mine. In any case, yeah, Kim's alright. She's sleepin' now."

"I was until a door slammed open." Kim moans, her eyes finally opening

"So how ya feelin'?" I ask

"There's a slight pain in my gut, but nothing I cannot deal with."

"Great, now if you'll excuse me..." I start to creep out the barely hangin' door.

"MONTAGE!!!" the voice I'd been dreadin' growled. I knew Karin would, uh, "disapprove" of me kickin' in her dad's door since it used ta be her's as well. "GET OVER HERE!!" she screams and I get the fuck out. Arrancar? I can deal with them. An enraged Karin? Now that's a challenge I'm sure ta lose


End file.
